Dark Days
by LostInTheDreams
Summary: Kaito and Hakuba stumble into the dark hour. Only one will make it out. Hardships await and masks are put up just as quickly as they're torn down when real magic and fake mingle. A magicain and a witch set out to save the "Lost" in more ways than one.
1. A World of Coffins

The title is likly to change but I wanted to see how many people were into a Persona 3/MK Crossover.  
I really REALLY wanted to do a crossover and Persona's the only thing I know well enough at the moment to do it.

Of course, I also had to make Hakuba and Kaito the main chracters again :)

I love them!

Anyway, please review and tell me if you like it. I may not go _all_ the way to the end of the video game,  
but it will be an even mix of both stories.  
Since I'm doing it from the MK perspective though **_you might be able to pick it up even if you've never  
played the game._**

You'll come to understand it along with Kaito.

PLEASE REVIEW AND TELL ME IF YOUR INTERESTED!

* * *

**_Chapter 1: A World of Coffins_**

Kaito had seen a lot of things in his lifetime, especially with the 'weird' that he seemed to carry around him on his nightly escapades, but hundreds of coffins littering the streets in stand-up warrior fashion was not one of them.

A small town called Iwatodai, farther from home than he would have liked, had been hosting a large sapphire, embedded into a bracelet of silver and black. The heist had gone according to plan. Kaito had set it for eleven-thirty that night with Nakamori in attendance, and he had given the man some hope of catching him before slipping through the Inspector's fingers.

At midnight, as he flew his glider away from the scene - noting that he hadn't shaken Hakuba off as the detective was watching him from afar, unable to catch up on foot – he heard the sound of a distant bell toll before the moon painted itself a bright, sickly yellow on the last chime. The air had was still with deathly silence.

Kid's glider shook due to his surprise, so he retracted the frame and landed on the roof of a nearby building to look down at the gothic cemetery scenery.

"What the hell is going on?"

The silence around him didn't answer him. The stillness that came with the absence of life surrounded the thief, making him shudder. "Maybe the cops got me with some new type of drug?" He looked himself over, seeing that nothing on him was different. No tiny needle he found himself looking for on instinct . Kaito shook his head. Conan hadn't been there. There was no way he could have fallen asleep. He felt very awake. And, truth be told, slightly dizzy. The green-painted sky had done something to his head.

"If someone's out there and thinks this is funny," he said in a steadily quieting voice, feeling that breaking the choked-off, motionless air would shatter something larger, "it's not."

Kaito didn't realize just how much happier he would have been to keep that silence.

The building he was on physically started to shake as if he were in a magnitude six earthquake. Due to the shaking, Kaito couldn't judge very well, but it seemed only the building he was on was convulsing.

"Whoa!" He started backing up from the ledge that he almost fell off to, trying and catch his balance. He would have been fine, but tripping on the raised concrete edge would have left him with a good bruise.

The shaking stopped after a few seconds, followed by an eerie sound that made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. Kaitou Kid was afraid of nothing. The police had chased him around several times, even nearly caught him. He'd been shot at by trained killers. He had a bullet miss his heart by less than an inch more than once. None of that had ever scared him.

This unearthly noise that sounded like the synthesis of a moan and joyful laugh made into an animal sound had him sweating.

"What is going on?"

Kaito pulled out his card gun. The plastic was steady but it felt too light in his fingers. There was nothing to aim at yet, but the reverberating howls, or whatever they were, were getting louder. If physics was anything to go by, that meant that whatever was making the sound was coming closer.

He spun around, his white cape only just falling out of reach as something that looked like molded black goo grabbed at him. The goo turned itself into a hand too large to be human, with black and purple liquid swirling around inside of it. Another reached up to catch hold of the side of the building. The thing that disturbed Kaito the most about it was, because of where the thumb was positioned, they must have been someone's s – _something's_ – left hand. Two left hands. That meant there was something really wrong with it's physical body or there would be two right ones following.

The moon was full that night. Kaito made sure that, if he was going so far away from home - to a town that he'd only just heard about - he would make a grand entrance. The glare of his unintended enemy showed him just how disturbing his night suddenly became.

The _creature__ - __mutation__ -__ alien thing_, whatever it was, climbed up onto the building. It held a blue mask in its grasp, complete with markings for eye holes and slits for nostrils. As Kaito watched it crawl all the way onto the building, his eyes widened. The thing was actually looking at him with the mask. It had no eyes of its own.

"This isn't happening, right?" He looked around for some sort of explanation, card gun reflexively held up to defend himself if the thing decided to attack. It screeched again, shaking the building as it slammed its hands into the rooftop, said hands coming to a total of nine as they kept growing from the gelatinous goo. Kaito backed up.

A smirk crossed his lips, sweat beading down his forehead as he tried to make sense of what he was seeing. Something splashed as he moved his stance to better stand his ground. He looked down.

The fear that had been creeping up on him at the sight of the creature suddenly skyrocketed. He couldn't see where it was coming from, but Kaito was definitely standing in blood. He looked around him to see that he was still alone on the roof except for the creature. Then more hands started appearing over the edge of the building.

"I think its best that I left now."

Kaito took the glider release mechanism into his fingers. Then he sighed, noticing that he wouldn't be able to use it. The building he had picked to land on was too short, only being ten stories without enough gust to get him into the higher wind currents. At such a height, he would only fall, slowly as it might be, but with no clear shot at the ground and who know what being down there.

Then the other creature was on the rooftop with him. It looked over as another sent of black hands reached of the the top. It seemed the first creature didn't want to waite for its partner and one of the hands lifted the mask to look at him before it charged.

Hands being used as feet, especially with nine of them, were hard to avoid. Kaito backed up into a cement wall where a door was embedded to allow people access to the roof. He quickly turned and scrambled up it, getting snagged by one of the outreached appendages before slipping away. His cape tore away from one of his shoulders.

Kaito was only able to crouch on the roof for a second before the thing climbed after him. As he never had to face anything like this creature before in his life, he ran. He didn't get far. There wasn't anywhere to go and his glider was useless, dangling around his side as more of a handicap than helpful. He tired to calm his heart rate but this wasn't a killer he was facing this time. This was something out of a science fiction novel.

"Maybe I have something." Kaito fumbled around with his gadgets, dropping a few in a clatter as he searched for some type of rope. There wasn't time to tie it though, even if he had found something.

One of the hands grabbed hold of his upper arm, dragging him towards it. Primal fear stirred in him at this point, overriding his practiced calm. He took his card gun and shot at the thing, hoping that the playing cards would do something – _anything_ – to stop the creature.

Kaito tired to keep his hand steady as he was being waved around in the creatures grasp, pulling the trigger without a clear shot.

The hand holding the mask swiveled to look where his ammunition had cut into several of its other arms. It hadn't let him go, but it wasn't hurting him yet and the cards seemed to have cut into its body even if there wasn't any blood.

"What are you doing you idiot?"

Kaito looked between the gaps in the creature's body, facing what appeared to be a teenage boy who as just spoken. The creature turned to look at the kid as well. The boy was wearing a purple shirt under a black outfit, a metal chain on his belt and red arm band sticking out against the green night.

The boy grinned under a black cap and placed a sword between himself and the creature. "Come on. Fight me!"

_Be my guest,_ Kaito thought to himself.

But the creature still wouldn't let him go. The boy's smile faded. "Hey! Are you ignoring me?"

"Could you at least help me up?" A girl's voice came from a distance.

The boy let out a breath, not moving from his stance. "Not now."

"Come on, monkey boy. How'd you get up there in the first place anyway?"

The boy twitched, eyes angry and turning to glance behind him. "Just because you're not talented doesn't mean you get to insult me!"

"Junpei, if you don't help me up _right now,_ I promise you'll regret it!"

Kaito's day just kept getting stranger and stranger. The fear that had been plaguing him wasn't gone, but for some reason it had lessened when he had realized that whatever strange, nightmarish place the world had turned into in the span of a heartbeat, he wasn't alone.

"Fine! I'll get up there myself!"

Kaito internally jumped when he heard the sound of a gun going off, reactions trained to recognize the noise as his body stilled and he prepared for a more offensive tactic. He looked around in confusion, but the boy didn't seem fazed.

Then something incredibly strange happened. There were two other teenagers, one a girl with short hair and the other a boy with blue - _hello-look-how-much-I-stand-out-in-a-crowd - _bangs that covered his right eye around shorter matching hair. Both floated up on what appeared to be a gust of wind. The girl held a bow and arrow cocked beneath her arm and the blue haired teen held a small sword, his eyes gray and worried-looking.

The thing holding him squirmed as if it were afraid of them. Kaito didn't see why. The weapons looked like they could hurt, but this thing was easily twice their size and twice as fast.

"Well, now I'm gonna _make_ you fight me!" The first boy, who Kaito could see was wielding a large sword, took out a gun from his pocket. Kaito was beyond trying to figure out what was going on, but the weapon had instilled something deep in him, flickers of hate. Guns were never a good thing. He froze, gripping his own card gun so tightly that he was surprised his fingers weren't hurting more.

Kaito had thought the boy was going to shoot the thing. It had been trying to attack him, so Kaito couldn't say anything against it, but the other boy had something else in mind. He put the gun to his own head.

"What are you doing?" he asked, realizing that nothing was following a logical order any longer. Kaito swallowed, hearing his voice come out much lower than he had intended. The other boy looked slightly shaken but he didn't remove the weapon.

"I'll teach you not to ignore me!"

The gun went off and Kaito flinched. That couldn't have just happened. It made no sense. The thief peeked out from under his hat to see the fourth or fifth most impossible thing in only so many minutes.

There was a large soldier floating in the air above the boy, armor almost in a dress fashion that men used to wear. The soldier was wielding what appeared to be seven blades in each of its hands, painted an off gold and steadily shrinking in size to form a wing shape. Its helmet had what appeared to be metal wings in design form.

The most surprising was that the boy in the hat was still standing with the gun held loosely at his side, the warrior floating in front of him in a defensive position.

"Agi!"

Fire erupted. If he hadn't moved quickly, he would have had more than just a scorched arm. Instead, the flames engulfed the masked creature, eating it away until it was nothing but ash. Kaito stared numbly down at whatever it had been, his composure slowly coming back now that he was faced with something more normal. At least the three people left standing in front of him _looked_ normal.

The boy in with the blue hair stared at him. The other one with the soldier, which had now vanished as if it had never been there, turned to the girl who had been yelling at him and started the argument back up. The newer boy may have been shorter and his sword not as long, but his eyes were serious. Judging by the petty way the other two were fighting, this shorter boy was obviously the one in charge.

"Come on Yuka-tan! If I took the time to help you, the Shadow could have eaten the poor bastard!"

Kaito clenched his fist. That was not the way to refer to someone you hadn't even met properly. He let it go, grin kept strong now that the pressure of saving his life was out of the way. The boy that was standing closest to him never let his gaze wander. It was the only reason Kaito didn't refute the other boy's argument. If they could somehow burn the creature to cinders, he didn't want to see what they'd do if he got them angry.

"Whatever, Junpei. You have to start learning to work as part of a team. Don't get mad because you weren't made the leader."

"I'm not mad!"

"The yelling doesn't help your argument."

The two turned on the boy with the blue hair, the first words he had spoken coming out deeper than Kaito had imagined his voice. The boy glanced sideways at them with a patient smile, letting Kaito breath easier now that he wasn't being scrutinized. The thief allowed a hand to wandered into his pocket.

"I guess you're right. Yuka-tan started it." Junpei turned away from the conversation, an act of cowardice more than a peace treaty. It was almost as if he were afraid to stand up against the other two, or maybe some internal guilt that Kaito couldn't place.

"You guys, what's going on out there?" A new girl's voice came out of nowhere, sounding staticky as if there was a bad connection in a phone line. This girl sounded older, but Kaito couldn't be sure.

"We're just fine." Junpei said after putting a hand to his ear. He looked like he was talking to the air. "There's some-" The tall boy turned to look at him for the first time that night. Really looked at him. His attention had been solely focused on the monster, and later on the girl. He wasn't very observant. "-Some weird guy up here. He's dressed kinda funny."

"Hey, I know you!" The girl in the pink, with her a large red bow on the front of her shirt making her look like a Christmas present, looked at him with wide eyes and a frown. "Aren't you that guy from on news?"

Kaito sighed aloud. _The guy on the news was not how he wanted to be remembered._

The third boy, the one whose name he still didn't know, dropped his smile. His eyes spoke that he knew who Kaito was better than the other two. Best not to stick around then.

"I appreciate the help and I hope to never repeat the experience." Kaito stepped backwards, onto a small ledge that really had no purpose. It wouldn't stop anything from falling.

"Hey, what are you-"

The kid with the hat didn't get his words out before Kaito released a smoke bomb.

The small grappling hook he had in his hand was out in seconds as he fell backwards through the night sky. The green tinge that his clothes carried made him feel demonic. Kid's white outfit should only ever be white.

Once he reached the ground he ran. His footsteps were loud but he didn't really care. As Kaito glanced down the streets, all he could see were coffins and blood.

"This is one messed up-" he couldn't even use the word _nightmare_. _Whatever_ he was experiencing, _wherever_ he was – this was real.

He looked down at his wristwatch, rolling up his burned sleeve. That had been real. _The monster – creature – Shadow, did they call it_? _had just tried to kill him_. If he touched it, Kaito had a feeling the blood would be real too. Running through the streets there was plenty of it. He avoided the puddles even if he had to go out of his way to do so.

Soon he came to a train station. There were a lot of food vendors with shops closed up at such a late hour. A few scattered coffins littered the streets here too.

"This isn't happening." Kaito sat down on a bench, gratefully free of mortal juices. "Someone – _something – must have happened_," he thought_._ "But what?" The only reason he was voicing his questions aloud was because he hated the silence. It chilled him. He enjoyed it far better than the noise those creatures made, though.

He sat there for a long time, trying to come to terms with what was happening. Just when he made up his mind to leave and see how far this strange phenomenon stretched, time started again. The blood disappeared in the space of seconds, normal color returning to the world as the coffins faded into people in the blink of an eye.

"What?"

A girl turned towards him as the sound of his voice. Looking down, Kaito realized that, now that people somehow inhabited the world again, sitting in the middle of a strip mall was not a good idea.

Another smoke bomb and he was off, leaving the strange town behind him.

…

Kaito sat at his desk and played around with a top, watching it fall over again and again because he didn't have the energy to spin it. The clattering noise was distracting but no one stopped him. He was sure he knew why. Retaliation was his specialty.

"Kaito, you baka! Stop it!" Aoko drew up close to him and tried to take the top but Kaito snatched it away, proceeding to continue his musings out of her reach.

"Fine then!" Aoko folded her arms and faced forward. "Do whatever you want, you delinquent!"

Felling bad, he put the toy away. He didn't have the state of mind to be dealing with whatever he had seen _and Aoko._ Kaito's mind had been having fun with all his memories of that city, so he wasn't getting much sleep. The bracelet was still in Kid's room because he hadn't been able to return it. He hadn't even been able to stay in the city for longer than it had taken for him to get out of it. The news was having a field day with the first item that he had yet to return. It had already been two weeks since then.

One strange thing had followed him. Hakuba hadn't come back. He didn't notice the detective was absent until the forth day. Then, out of the blue, he showed up yesterday after such a long absence with the excuse that he'd been looking into clues that he'd picked up.

When Kaito had watched him the other day, he seemed fine. Hakuba had been a little more confident than he liked, and had been insulting Kid about his tardiness on the return, but normal. Today the detective was more resigned, his pencil scratching the paper for only the first two minutes of class before the blond put it down and started out the window. Kaito put his own head down. He had wanted to ask _him - Nakamori - anyone_, if they'd had the same experience that he had had that night. He doubted it.

He jumped slightly in his chair when the class bell rang. Aoko gave him a weird look before picking up her bag and crossing her arms in front of her as she stood up.

"What's the matter with you? You look like you saw a ghost."

"Or a monster," Kaito replied in a sarcastic voice. "Here comes Aoko-saurus."

"Kaito!"

He dodged her bag and grinned, letting the memories fall away. He was home now. Whatever had happened, he wouldn't be experiencing it again.

Hakuba's hands slamming into his desk made him jump, tripping him up on his chair before he feel to the ground on top of it.

"Oi! What was that for?"

"Kuroba-kun, did you-" Hakuba shook his head, mouth half closed and eyes turned to the side. He looked like he was fighting back pain. "Nothing. Sorry."

"No, tell me." Kaito tried to scramble to his feet before Hakuba could get away. "What were you going to ask?"

Hakuba turned back, looking half hopeful at the tone in Kaito's voice. "Did anything happen to you that night?"

"What night?" Aoko looked between the two boys. "What are you talking about?"

"Right." Hakuba turned away, looking miserable again. "You weren't there. You couldn't have seen anything."

Kaito blinked, realizing that he _couldn't_ have this conversation with the detective. Kid may have been there, but it was miles away for _Kaito_ to have been there.

"Maybe we're talking about somewhere else on a different night then?" He knew his own eyes were pleading, but he wanted some perspective on what had gone on then. If anything, he wanted Hakuba to return the bracelet for him.

Hakuba looked surprised. He'd have to accept a temporary truce on the matter, but Kaito would be admitting he was there. He could lie, say he had come after all as himself, but Hakuba's suspicions would hold more validity than they had before. It was more of a concession on Kaito's part, and he was willing to make it for answers. He was sick of blood and shadows haunting his dreams.

"Maybe we are." Hakuba looked just as tired as he did. If anything, the detective looked worse. Hakuba coughed into his hand and looked away. The cough wasn't voluntary. "But not here."

Kaito looked up with his eyes, Aoko facing the detective so she didn't see him. Hakuba had sharper eyes. He nodded.

"I'll meet you in five minutes." Kaito grinned at them both, releasing a stream of confetti before vanishing in the swirls of color.

In reality, Kaito had only gone out the door, but they didn't need to know that. He'd asked Hakuba for five minutes so the detective wouldn't look for him prematurely and spoil his trick. None of the five or six people in the class had heard the door open and close.

The warm air was nice outside and left his mind clearer. The metal door to the stairs was thick and, once Hakuba showed up and closed it, a device he'd set up earlier would keep it closed so that they wouldn't be overheard.

The roof, as freeing as it was, brought the fear back and he found himself watching the edge for fingers trying to reach up towards him. Nothing came and he knew he was home, but his mental reassurances did nothing for his nerves.

The door closing made him jump.

"Damn it."

He got himself off the ground. There was no way Hakuba hadn't seen that. He'd been losing his edge recently. Kaito tried to focus on the here and now. Blob-like enemies that defied all logic were _not_ going to be showing up, _and yet he found himself unconsciously looking for them._

Hakuba coughed again. "Someone's jumpy."

"Can you blame me?" He shook his head. "Never mind. For all I know, you can."

"Are you really willing to talk to me?" As condescending as Hakuba's words came out, there was a needing there.

"Who says I didn't show up? Just because you didn't see me, or I didn't come on the same train, doesn't mean I would miss a Kid heist."

"Or that you _could_ miss one."

"You're going to have to work with me on this." Kaito crossed his arms and waited for Hakuba to see that he was serious. "So, what happened to you? I'm sure my time-freak noticed something unusual."

"That actually seemed more normal than everything else. You are talking about the clocks stopping, right? Testing the waters to see if we shared the same experience?"

"I guess you could say that." He sat down the on the roof. The cement out-cropping behind him kept his body propped up and protected if anything tried to get at him from behind. "Had any run-ins with pudding gone bad?"

Hakuba frowned. "No, I didn't. I can't even imagine what you could be referring to. My encounter was more of the human type."

"That doesn't sound so bad." Kaito shrugged. "Pudding gone bad looking at you without eyes was more disturbing. I didn't mind the human part."

"Did your human encounter have weapons?"

"Yeah." Here he frowned. "It was weird though. One of them definitely had a gun and used it, but nothing happened to them." _Just some weird thing appeared out of nowhere, dressed in old knight fashion._

"You were lucky then. The bullets I ran into were real." Hakuba lifted the sleeve on his left arm to show bandages with blood seeping through the wrapping.

"What happened to you?" Kaito was still now, thinking back on his own encounter. The people hadn't pointed their weapons at him.

"The man said he mistook me for someone else. I don't know who he could have been talking about, but he walked away. I was with the police for a few days, but with my explanation of- _something_-" Hakuba trailed off. "They kept me longer."

"You stayed?" Kaito's eyes widened. "Did it happen again?"

"Every night." Hakuba shivered. "I did everything I could to get them to let me go. They thought I'd gone loony or was on some type of drug."

"Because you started talking about streets full of blood and coffins where there should have been people?"

Hakuba looked even more hurt than he had in the classroom, hidden only by his surprise. "Yes."

"I'd like to hear about it."


	2. Predestined

Okay, I had to make some nessasary changes. Because of how they refer to each other in Persona 3, I have it to where they say  
their first and last name the English way. It just seemed the easiest.

And _**I AM**_ going to play with the time line in Persona because Kaito and Hakuba can't very well stay there for nine months. The story would be  
way longer then I want to write.

* * *

_**Chapter 2: Predestined**_

"You first." Hakuba's voice was shaky but upbeat than he'd been sounding. Kaito narrowed his eyes at him and put his hands up.

"Fine. I was – on the roof... somewhere." Honestly, he'd been paying very little attention to where he was running away from. That was something new. But then again, there had been a lot of strange things happening at the moment, so it had been easy to overlook the more mundane'.

"A roof?" Hakuba raised an eyebrow.

Kaito stiffened, letting his mouth close and his arms fold in front of him. "Do you want me to tell you or not?"

With a resigned nod, Hakuba placed a hand on the floor to face him. He sat down next to Kaito so he wouldn't have to be bending over to look him in the eye. "Please do."

"Okay then, no questions like that. So I was on a roof somewhere and ran into something taller than me that looked like black jelly gone bad. It had all these arms that made up its body. I can't really say it had a body, really. Then its face-"

Hakuba put one of his hands up to make Kaito stop. "You really expect me to believe this?"

Something inside him shut off all his reactions, emotions, and the like. "Do you think I'm lying to you? I thought you had a similar experience. I guess not. If you didn't want to know what happened to me then you shouldn't have asked. Have fun getting the cops to believe you about a world full of coffins and blood."

He got up to leave. If Hakuba didn't want to listen to him, then he didn't have to sit there and take it while the detective called him a liar. Because of what his job entailed, he'd been called a hypocrite long enough. He wouldn't be called one when he was telling the truth.

"That's not - Kuroba-kun, all I'm saying is that it's hard to believe. If you had told me that what I saw was real, but I wasn't there to see it, I wouldn't have believed you. I find it hard to believe myself sometimes. It was late." Hakuba's voice grew quieter. "Maybe I passed out or something and it was all some nightmare. It doesn't explain how I really have a bullet wound. You can't be shot in your dreams…"

"Right." Kaito looked at Hakuba's arm. The detective must have sounded nuts if he showed up with the wound near the cops with no explanation of how he'd gotten it that didn't sound insane. Kid didn't need to explain anything to anyone. "So I got attacked by mutant jelly. What happened to you?"

"Humans." The detective shivered. "One minute I was with the other officers, you – ah, Kid having just escaped, and the next second the sky turned green and I was surrounded by coffins. It happened at midnight." Hakuba took his watch out and held onto it like a lifeline. "Exactly at midnight. My watch stopped. I don't think time passed after that."

"I wasn't near a clock." Kaito scooted back to lean fully against the wall behind him. He wasn't going to walk away from this, but he didn't feel like sitting near Hakuba anymore. They weren't friends. This was just a consolation to a strange phenomenon that neither of them could accept. "I heard one before everything went funny though."

"As you can understand, I was rather startled at first. I – ahem, ran away from the officers that weren't really people anymore. When I started to calm down and notice that, besides the blood that slipped over the streets and down the walls, nothing was trying to hurt me. I examined some of the coffins. They didn't feel real – or wooden, if I'm being specific. They felt like ice that wasn't cool to the touch." Hakuba rubbed his thumb over his first two fingers. Kaito shivered.

"I didn't want to touch them. I'll take your word on it."

"Yes, well, here's where things started to confuse me further. I heard some people arguing. There were two of them. I may have gotten slightly excited when I noticed that I wasn't the only one who was experiencing – whatever that was." Hakuba had turned, one arm resting on the cement and the other on his knee so that he could face Kaito. "Of course, the first person who saw me drew a gun out of his belt and shot me. If I hadn't been partially hidden I may not have gotten away with such a minor injury. Needless to say, I didn't stick around. I spent the rest of the time trying to run away from them."

"Um." Kaito thought back. The people that he'd run into didn't look like they had any interest whatsoever in hurting him. They'd only been after the monster.

"So how'd you get away from your black jelly fiend?" Hakuba may have been smiling, but there was nothing friendly in his features. The detective was scared.

"Humans." Kaito closed his eyes. "They didn't hurt me, though."

"Why would the bad guys go after a bad guy?" Hakuba sighed. "Makes sense."

"They weren't on my side, and for your information, they didn't even know who I was." Kaito let out a snort. The thought of the boy with the cap still got him angry. If it weren't for their intervention, though, he wasn't sure he could have escaped. That thing could have killed him. "They killed the jelly monster. I ran off after that."

"You do know you'll have to return that bracelet sooner or later."

Kaito didn't let Hakuba see how much he wasn't looking forward to that. "I don't have any bracelet."

"Right. Kid will have to return it. I've never known him to keep anything this long before. I'm sure that it's gotten several people interested."

"I don't really want to go back." Kaito sighed. "Even if I had a reason to. Midnight, though." Kaito thought in the open silence for a few seconds. "You said it happened every night. As long as I go back during the day, I should be fine."

"A week there was enough for me. I won't be returning." The detective looked downright haunted. Not only did it look like he hadn't gotten sleep in days, but he also looked sick. "I didn't run into anything else after those two, but I don't want to risk a repetition of the incident."

Kaito shrugged. "I wasn't asking you to come with."

"Don't go."

Kaito looked down at Hakuba. The other teen was clearly shaking, though he was trying to hide it. "This isn't something you can handle. Return it to the police here. They'll give it back."

"I'm not a coward. And besides, why would I have to return anything?"

Hakuba twitched. Kaito realized too late that his words could have been taken another way.

"Fine." Hakuba stood up. His eyes were sharp and he looked determined. "But if we die, I'll never forgive you."

"We? Hakuba-kun, why would either of us need to go there?" Kaito was taken aback, his own gaze questioning and confused.

"If you're going, then so am I! Don't you dare try to leave without me. Think of it more as a trip we're both taking. I'm sure you can come up with some excuse. As far as I'm concerned, though, you leave without me and I'll make sure that you pay."

"Hakuba-kun, calm down. I didn't mean anything by it." Kaito couldn't fully disguise the surprise in his voice. The vehemence from his on-again off-again rival was new compared to the mild mannered Hakuba he'd come to know, even outside of school.

The answering glare he got in return told him the detective wasn't messing around.

"Fine, you can come with. We'll go the day after tomorrow. I'll meet you at the train station after school."

Hakuba nodded, disappearing down the stairs.

…

Ten twenty-seven.

Kaito put his watch back into his pocket.

This was something he hadn't expected. Hakuba was late.

The train had left a good twenty minutes ago, but there was another one coming in about ten minutes. It was a long ride down to Iwatodai, which was a few hours down south. Getting to the oceanfront city was going to take long enough if they kept missing the train.

And, damn it, Kaito wished he'd gotten Hakuba's number. He'd been meaning to do it since the blond transferred, but Kaito kept getting distracted. His fingers itched towards his phone.

He hadn't gotten much sleep. As nerve-racking as it was remembering what he had seen there, he didn't want to go back. His nightmares woke him whenever he did find time to get to sleep.

So he passed out on one of the benches.

…

"Kuroba-kun."

Kaito opened his eyes, seeing Hakuba behind him with an apologetic look on his face.

"Sorry that I'm so late. I overslept."

Kaito took the watch out of his pocket and saw that it was past noon.

"You know it's going to be dark when we get there now." Kaito sighed, getting up and stretching. Falling asleep on the bench wasn't very comfortable but he did feel more rested.

"Maybe we should wait until tomorrow, then."

Kaito laughed. "Why keep putting it off? I'd rather get it over with so that I don't have to keep stressing out about it. Maybe we were just seeing things. Stuff like this…" Kaito trailed off. "It can't be real."

"Well I had to suffer with this imposed reality long enough. I can assure you that it's real. I don't see what difference it makes. Going back won't change anything."

"I'm not going to experience that again." _Though it would be interesting and I'd have a way to escape this time, _Kaito thought. "I have my own reasons."

"Like I said, you could have just returned it to the police here."

"You were the only one who saw this time- whatever, right? None of the officers with you were... 'there' anymore. What if-" Kaito's mind had been having fun with that too. Whatever that monster was that attacked him, he was sure that a bunch of coffins that couldn't defend themselves would make easier targets. He didn't want Nakamori going back to that.

"Ah, I understand now." Hakuba smiled but there wasn't much humor in it. "Let's go, then. I've made us miss our train enough times as it is."

"Right." Kaito got out the schedule and went over to the ticket booth. Hakuba snuck up behind him and paid for both their tickets.

Kaito took his grudgingly. "You didn't have to do that."

"I know." Hakuba had that air of self-satisfaction around him again, so Kaito let it go. He'd rather the detective be overconfident than depressed.

**...**

The train ride took hours, but Kaito found himself wishing that it would have been longer when their stop came. They had to transfer once, which made it feel even shorter. It was almost seven when they stepped off onto the platform.

"We have a few hours." Hakuba looked around nervously. "I didn't really travel far after what happened, so I don't know the city well. Do you know where the police station is?"

"Not a clue." Kaito grinned at Hakuba's worried look. "We should ask around."

"I am not separating from you. Not when-"

"Ah, you're such a chicken, Hakuba-kun."

"I am not!"

"Right, right." Kaito put his hands up when Hakuba turned on him. "So let's find out where the police station is."

They did. It turned out they had to get back on the train. The mainland didn't have a station of its own. The only one close by was near a mall on a small island off the coast.

"Great, more train rides." Kaito got back to the station, feeling the drag of not moving of his own accord.

"Let's not take too long." Hakuba took out his watch, looking at the second hand as it seemed to spin too quickly.

"Knock it off, will ya? You're getting me nervous, too. It's not even ten yet!"

Kaito looked out at the dark landscape. The second train would take them onto the island, but it was still a walk to the police station. They could have gone the long way and taken a cab or walked to the bridge, but they wouldn't have gotten back out before midnight. The train, while technically longer, was faster and less of a walk.

The train only took a few minutes to come, just a little longer to take them to the island and drop them off. From what he'd picked up, the train was mostly used by commuters going to the campus there.

Kaito didn't like what he saw when he got off the train.

"This town is bad enough to have graffiti at the train station?" He scoffed at the blatant disdain of city officials. Even Kaito didn't do something as low as using permanent paint. His own was all water soluble. It made the town ugly.

"It doesn't surprise me. There's something wrong here." Hakuba pulled the light coat he was wearing closer around himself. Kaito thought he was crazy. It was the beginning of April for heaven's sake! It was freaking hot out!

Kaito and Hakuba made it to the bottom to have millions of bikes litter their view of the city. As they descended the steeps, three very familiar teens walked up to them.

"You guys!" Kaito exclaimed, pointing a finger at them and, much to his shame, transition to hide slightly behind Hakuba in a defensive position.

They all jumped back, with Hakuba unsure of what was going on. The boy with the cap frowned.

"What the hell are you screaming at me for? Jeez, you scared the hell out of me!"

"Who are they?" Hakuba asked, his voice sounding on edge.

"My midnight randezvous-ees."

Hakuba stiffened, clearly not prepared to meet anyone during the day, or night, technically. Kaito kept his distance, looking closely for the hidden guns that they had been carrying that night. The girl's was hidden under her coat and the boy with the cap had his hidden in his pants, but Kaito couldn't tell where the boy with the gray eyes had his.

"I'm sorry, have we meet before?" The girl stepped forward, still slightly shaken at the way Kaito had yelled at them. "My name is Yukari Takeba. I haven't seen you two around school before."

"We don't go to school here." Hakuba, ignoring all common sense, walked up to the girl and shook her hand. "I'm Saguru Hakuba. My friend and I are just visiting. We were here before too and it seems he recognized you. I'm sorry, he's not very good around new people."

Kaito bristled. He was not scared of them. Hakuba made him sound like an untrained puppy.

"Hi there. Why are you visiting us here? There's nothing special to look at." The boy with the cap put his hands behind his head and looked up. "This place is pretty boring, really."

"I think it's interesting."

All three of them turned to Hakuba at his words. Kaito wished the detective had more tact. He knew he wouldn't be doing any better though, so he let the Brit have his way. Kaito knew how to manipulate people, but he didn't always get answers when he was looking for them. He assumed the detective would be better at that.

"Really? I mean, it really is nothing special." Yukari put her hands on her hips. "As long as you know how to dodge a punch." She slapped her friend with the hat lightly on the stomach. Kaito was surprised when the boy backed up and put his hands protectively around his midsection.

"That was so not funny! I wouldn't have gotten hurt if you hadn't insisted on looking into the ghost incidents!"

"Ghosts?" Kaito perked up. That sounded a lot more fun than monsters. "There are ghosts here?"

"Ah! Please don't say that!" Yukari put her hands over her head. "There's no such thing as ghosts!"

"Of course there isn't," Hakuba said dryly, shooting his prankster classmate an annoyed look. "If there were, there'd be more proof out there than floating orbs on television and chairs that could be moved by wires or the wind."

"You go man!" The boy with the cap moved over to Hakuba. Of the two, Hakuba was only shorter by the smallest amount. That put Kaito somewhere around average height of the group, the girl and the boy who had yet to speak bringing up the shorter end of the scale. "I keep trying to tell her there's no such thing as ghosts!"

"No, you keep teasing her about it." The boy with the gray eyes smiled crookedly at his friend. Kaito was startled enough at his deep voice again that he'd forgotten what he was about to say.

"That's right! Stop it, Junpei!"

"Alright, alright, yeesh."

"Anyway, what are your names?" Hakuba smiled, looking between the non-introduced boys. Kaito had already caught Junpei's name several times, so it was unlikely an alias.

"Sorry about that. I'm Junpei Iori. Who's your chicken friend?"

Kaito got even angrier. No one was allowed to call him a chicken. He'd seen this boy point a gun at his own head. He had reason to be surprised.

"Kaito Kuroba," Kaito introduced himself. He had thought about using a fake name, but Hakuba hadn't and there mistakes would be made if the detective wasn't willing to play along.

"So, where are you guys headed to?" Junpei asked. "I don't recommend going the way we just came from."

Hakuba frowned. "Are you hurt?"

"It's nothing. The guy caught me when I wasn't ready." Junpei's hand wandered down to his stomach. "I could have taken him."

It didn't answer the detective's question and Kaito couldn't help wondering what he meant by it as well. It sounded like he was trying to fight someone.

"Sure you could have." Yukari sighed. "Anyway, we're going back to our dorm. The train runs throughout the night, but I wouldn't stay out too long."

"We just need to drop something off. Thanks for the advice." Hakuba held out his hand again and the girl shook it with a smile. They seemed used to non-Japanese customs.

"Maybe we'll see you around sometime."

They left, and only later did both Kaito and Hakuba realize that the boy with the gray eyes had never given them his name.

…

The police station took a while to get to, as some of their time had been eaten up with the conversation.

"They seemed nice. You said that they didn't try to hurt you that night. I would have liked to talk with them, but it didn't seem like a good time."

Kaito brushed his fingers against the bracelet in his pocket right pocket, his watch with the fingers in in his left. "No, there isn't much time."

"How far away do you think we need to be to not experience – whatever that was?"

Kaito closed his eyes. "Farther than we can get in an hour."

"I was afraid of that."

Both of them looked at each other, knowing they wouldn't get far enough away before anything happened that night. Midnight was an hour away and they had only just gotten to the station. "Want to stay here?"

"No, I've spent enough time under police watch, though Nakamori kept me at a makeshift office he had set up on the mainland." Hakuba looked up at the small building. "Do what you have to and come back out. I want to try and get as far away as we can."

"Right." Kaito nodded, falling into a nearby alleyway. "This means nothing, by the way. I'm just slipping off to use the bathroom."

"Very well. Don't take too long."

Kaito nodded again. He'd seen how tense Hakuba had been getting over the past half hour. He was in and out of the police station in under a minute. When he returned the bracelet this time, he left a note apologizing for the delay in its arrival. He couldn't very well say he hadn't given it back for nearly a month because he was afraid. Kid wasn't afraid of anything.

When he came around to the front of the building again, he found Hakuba looking around like a hawk. Unlike the bird though, the detective's movements were more subtle and less quick. He was clearly nervous.

"Let's go."

The detective jumped slightly at Kaito's voice, his muscles tightening before his brain told him there wasn't any danger.

"All right."

"So, where do want to go for the next-" Kaito stopped talking. "You know, I wasn't really focusing on it before, but how long does that green sky last?"

"About an hour." Hakuba looked down. "I had plenty of time to count in my head, but I was off by a few minutes each time. The average was an hour or so. There were either fluctuations or I was simply off in my timing."

"You found something boring to do while jelly monsters were on the prowl? Congrats to you and your infinite pomposity."

"Shut-up, you idiot." Hakuba smiled. Kaito let himself relax at that.

"Anyway, let's see if we can make it to the train station on time. If not, let's camp out on the highest building we can find so we don't have to be near anything unpleasant."

"I'm not too fond of heights, but I see the advantage to being up there, so fine."

They made it to the train station, more on edge then either of them would admit to. Kaito was used to being nervous around Hakuba, what with the blond's refusal to let the matter of Kid drop between them for more than a class period on most given days. Hakuba wasn't use to tension. As many cases as he'd been on in his so far short, and looking shorter, career, he'd never had the opportunity to let anything bother him longer than it would take for him to discover it's secrets. This wasn't something he wanted to understand, but his brain wouldn't let the need for some type of logical explication die.

Hakuba fidgeted as they walked up to the platform, Kaito keeping a strick mask in place to hide his up unease. The train that had come minutes before looked as if it were taking off and the two homebound teens ran into the three high-schoolers again before they could get on it. It seemed like the newcomers gotten off the last train before midnight.

"Hey, what are you guys still doing out?" Junpei looked up at the sky for answers. Hakuba was less friendly this time and stayed back.

"We're going home. We're running later than we thought we would."

The boy with the gray eyes hadn't stopped looking at them.

"I've seen you before."

His words alerted his friends and both of them scrutinized Kaito. He was used to people doing that already, especially Hakuba, so he hid behind an annoyed face and careless attitude.

"Really? I don't remember him." Yukari looked closer. "There's been a lot of kids you've just met at school. Maybe you're confusing them. Gekkoukan High has a large student population."

The gray eyed boy smiled. "No."

Kaito never felt so intimidated by someone who wasn't even trying. The boy was even shorter than him. He found himself getting defensive instead of offensive and that had only happened a few times, all of which included a gun being pointed at someone.

"Anyway, Kaito, right? You'd better get going. The streets get kinda dangerous out here."

"That's an understatement," the girl added under her breath.

Kaito must have been smiling nervously because Junpei looked back at him. "If you're familiar with the area, you know you just missed the last train until one."

"Kuroba-kun." Hakuba leaned towards him. "Whatever may have happened the night you were here, they protected you right? Wouldn't it be better to stay with them?"

Kaito sighed, looking them over. Maybe if they didn't have the guns, he'd be more okay with it. The firearms made him uneasy though, and he didn't want to be around them. That didn't mean they wouldn't be safer in their company.

"All right, but you get to explain it to them." Kaito waved a hand in front of him. "And no mentioning things that don't need to be mentioned."

Hakuba nodded before bowing to the teenagers. "My friend and I were here a few weeks ago, and something rather unexplainable occurred. We were wondering if you knew anything about it."

"Don't know what you're talking about." Junpei shrugged. "What happened to you?"

Yukari was looking at them with a serious expression, but the blue-haired boy didn't seem to care either way what happened. Kaito walked up to him before Hakuba could explain anything and stopped a foot in front of the other teen.

"You know everything, right? Want to explain it?"

The blue-haired boy grinned something malicious on too innocent a face. "You first. How did you know we knew about the dark hour? Haven't we met before?"


	3. Nightfall At the Hotel

This story will be a lot slower coming than my other ones, so be prepared.

Also, I did mention and will again that I'm playing around with the story line (of Persona 3)

_**

* * *

**_

_**Chapter 3: Nightfall At the Hotel**_

Kaito grinned, keeping his gaze locked on the other boy's.

"I don't think we have. I must just remind you of someone, like Yukari said. The _Dark Hour,_ was it?" He turned to Hakuba and added in a whisper, "I guess you were right. It is an hour."

"That must be it. I must have mistaken you for someone else." The boy walked past him, but _he_ knew. Kaito appreciated at least one person keeping their suspicions to themselves. He was tired of fighting with Hakuba about it.

"Hey, wait a minute," Junpei took a few quick steps over to the boy. "You can't just go around telling them about it!"

"They already know." The boy closed his eyes and opened them to look up at the sky. "It's almost time."

"Jeez, what am I gonna do with ya? What kind of leader goes around giving away all our secrets? And how do you know that they know?"

"That asked."

"Excuse me, we didn't mean to start up an argument." Hakuba raised his hands to try and soothe the rage that Junpei was giving off. There seemed to be something - not hostile, but unfriendly - between the two, though the blue-haired boy seemed calm about it.

"Mitsuru-senpai, what are we supposed to do?"

Kaito turned towards her when he heard Yukari's voice. The boy next to him did as well. Yukari was in a feverent conversation with someone on her pink cell.

"I know but-... We don't know that... I guess you're right but still... all right." She hung up and turned back to speak to her own group. "Mitsuru-senpai says we should take them with us. If they're lying, we'll know in a few minutes."

"If it puts you more at ease, we aren't staying. We'll leave as soon as we can."

"Good idea." Junpei looked away. "It's not like we need the help."

"Help?" Kaito looked intrigued. "What do you need help with?"

"Nothing! I just said we don't need ya, so lay off! Three of us is just fine!"

Hakuba raised his hands. "We weren't planning on staying longer than we had to. We didn't intend to start up an argument."

"Good - you should leave then. This is our job. We don't even know if they have the potential." Junpei strode off, away from the group.

Kaito wondered what that meant. _The potential?_ He couldn't bring himself to question the blue-haired teen.

Yukari sighed. "When is he going to learn that this isn't a game?"

Hakuba placed himself between Kaito and Yukari, the boy with the blue hair still at Kaito's right. The magician could see that the argument was stirring up the detective's fears. It was no wonder. Midnight was coming close.

"I don't understand how he can treat this so lightly. The guys makes it seem like this is some great video game that just came out... It's like I'm this only one that doesn't want to do this if I didn't have to." Yukari's voice was so quiet that Kaito had to guess she was asking herself rather than them.

"Do what?" Hakuba asked politely. Kaito wasn't so good with worry so he let the detective do the comforting.

"It's just, the Shadows... nothing. Forget it."

Kaito watched as Hakuba patted her reassuringly on the arm before letting his hand fall to the side since Yukari seemed uncomfortable with it. Kaito smirked. Hakuba didn't ask what Shadows were, though Kaito had a guess it was what he had run into that night. The Brit didn't want to look like an idiot in front of a girl.

"It's coming."

The blue haired boy had his timing down pat. Seconds later the sky glazed over in its alien hue. The people who were left nearby were slowly encased in shadow-like tendrils until they formed a slightly glowing coffin.

Kaito hadn't seen this happen the first time. "Creepy."

The boy looked off into the distance, towards what looked like a large tower that hadn't been on the horizon before. It grew over the smaller buildings but was hard to make out in the strange glow that came when the clocks stopped, blinding but not, almost as if you were looking at the world with the sun constantly in your eyes.

"You get used to it."

Kaito shot Hakuba an _I don't think so_ look.

The detective chuckled. "I did."

"Good for you."

"Oh, wow." Yukari stared at the both of them. "You weren't lying."

"You thought we were?" Kaito crossed his arms, trying stealthily to move in closer so they were in a more tight-knit circle.

:: _Takeba, do you read me?_ ::

"Yes, Mitsuru-senpai. It seems that these two followed up into the Dark Hour after all."

*tssshhhh* :: _Then keep a close eye on them. There's a big one tonight_. ::

"What!" Yukari continued to shout at the air while Kaito tired to find the source of the voice. It seemed to be coming from all around them. "Where is it?" she asked.

:: Shirakawa _Boulevard_.::

"What!"

Kaito and Hakuba watched as Yukari started to blush. The boy with the blue hair was equally as confused. Kaito smiled at him, getting one seconds later in return. Kaito knew his smiles were friendly and open. Opposite his quiet nature, the boy's seemed to give off the same feeling.

_:: Hurry! There isn't time to waste! ::_

"I know." Yukari sighed, regaining her composure. "I'm sorry. We'll head over there right away."

"Oh ho ho... I never thought I'd be going somewhere like that with you, Yuka-tan." Junpei fell back into the group. "We shouldn't waste the trip."

"Shut up, Stupei!" Yukari turned away and moved closer to Hakuba since Junpei was on her other side and there was no where else to go. "Your dirty mind might infect me."

"Ah." Hakuba withered slightly under Junpei's glare, trying to show that he wasn't the one at fault.

Kaito laughed. "I didn't think that someone could make this time actually fun. Remind me to stick with you guys the next time I'm in the area."

He put his hands in his pockets as he walked with the group towards their destination. Yukari had yet leave Hakuba's side and it made him smile all the more. "Oh, by the way. There won't be any of those jelly monsters, will there?"

"You mean the Shadows?" Yukari looked over at him. "You met one and got away?"

"Not exactly." Kaito withdrew. Apparently the creatures were as dangerous as they looked. "I ran."

"We shouldn't see any." Yukari scanned the area anyways. "When the big ones come, the rest seem to go into hiding."

"That doesn't sound good" Kaito said with a sigh.

Hakuba let out a laugh. Unlike the others, he caught on to the sarcasm. Usually it was a _good_ thing when the monsters weren't out. "Oh, that doesn't sound good. What are you planning to do with, what I can only assume, is the larger monster - excuse me - Shadow that, for some reason, we are heading towards instead of away from?"

"We're going to fight it, of course!" Junpei raised an arm and touched his bicep. "That's what the heroes always do! Defeat the monster!"

Yukari sighed while the boy next to Kaito shrugged. The magician tried to ignore the blood that collected in puddles around them. It certainly didn't seem like fun to him.

As they walked, Junpei bragged about how easy this Shadow was going to be to defeat. The last one, according to the overzealous teen, had been a walk in the park. Yukari had some things to say about that. Something about Junpei being an idiot, and a train. Most of it went over Kaito's head.

"We're here," Yukari announced as they walked up to what looked like a cheesy motel. Kaito had noticed the neighborhood declining as they progressed, but there was even a large pile of garbage stung along the side of the wall.

"What is this place?" Kaito plugged his nose and took in the many hearts and love posters adorning the outside of the building. "Oh. no. What kind of monster would want to be here?"

"I don't know, a filthy one." Yukari walked in. "Can you get a lock on it, Mitsuru-senpai?":

:: _Yes. It_'_s on the second floor. Akihiko's on his way_,_ so don't get yourselves hurt before he arrives_ ::

"Yeah, yeah. We're fine on our own." Junpei pushed his way in first. Kaito tried to elbow him as he was shoved aside, but the tall boy was lucky enough to get through without being hit.

"Calm down, Kuroba-kun." Hakuba peeked through the door, hesitant to follow. "Must we go with them?"

"Unless you want to stay out here and let the Shadows eat you." Yukari said teasingly as she passed them up.

Hakuba took her words to heart and entered, with Kaito close behind. Yukari stopped once she was inside and let the blue-haired boy go next , leaving Hakuba and Kaito in the back.

They went past the lobby with guarded movements. The boy drew a short sword while the girl took out a bow and arrow that she had in a bag strapped to her back.

"Don't we get any weapons?" Kaito asked.

"So you can stab yourselves with them? No, just stay close." Yukari took off as the blue-haired boy outpaced her in order to reach Junpei. Kaito took off after them, letting Hakuba go in front of him as the detective looked like he was ready to bolt at any second.

They went up the stairs and were greeted by multiple rooms. The blue haired boy took the lead at this point and Kaito heard an irritated noise as Junpei was forced to follow behind him. Kaito glanced around at the few plants and the dim mounted lights scatter around them, the latter of which revealed an elevator at the end of the each hallway.

"Kinky."

"Please be quiet, Kuroba-kun. Hearing you speak behind me makes me jump."

"Sorry," Kaito apologized, not really meaning it. It was Hakuba's own fault if he were jumpy.

They climbed another flight of stairs. The first two boys stopped dead in their tracks, bringing the rest of the group to a halt.

In front of them were what look like little cupids. Each of the three red and black miniature creatures were armed with a bow and arrow and looked decisively more villainous than any cupid image that Kaito had ever seen.

The blue-haired teen let his sword rest at his side before pulling out the gun. that Kaito noticed last time. He was prepared when the boy flipped the gun around, as if showing off his skills, before placing it against the side of his head. Hakuba's eyes widened and he backed away, but Kaito stayed put, wanting to see what would happened.

"Persona!"

A Trojan warrior in a white tunic and cape appeared before the boy. The helmet he adorned kept his face hidden, though Kaito barely noticed as he was focused on the large broadsword in the warrior's hands.

"Getsu-ei!"

The warrior didn't hesitate before taking the sword and slashing down the closest cupid, which seemed to be half-floating, half-dancing in the air instead of flying with the wings on its back. Upon contact, the creature fizzled away into nothingness. The Trojan vanished as quickly as it had come. The blue-haired boy winced as it disappeared, as if the creature took some of his life away.

"My turn!" Junpei stepped up next, not bothering to put down his weapon. He charged at one of the two remaining Cupids as the third realized its predicament and flew towards Yukari. The girl didn't have time to dodge before it bashed into her. To her credit, Yukari recovered quickly and sent two arrows into the creature, making it vanish as the first one had. By the time Kaito looked back at Junpei's fight, his creature was gone as well.

It took a moment for Kaito to find Hakuba. He'd backed away from the group to lean against the wall. Kaito could see how much of a stretch this was for the detective. Even the magician had his limits. If it weren't for Hakuba being so caught up in reason, it would have been simpler. Kaito, on the other hand, could see that something big was happening here, even if he couldn't understand it.

"Hakuba-kun." Kaito reached out his hand as the group looked on, unsure of what their next move should be.

Junpei seemed like he was ready to leave, but the blue-haired boy stood his ground. "Come on. You don't want to stay here with the monsters, do you?"

"This isn't happening." Hakuba shook his head. Kaito eyes widened as he realized the detective was going into shock.

"It's fine. No one's hurt. Hakuba-kun, _I _won't let any of these creatures hurt you. We can leave soon. Come on. Don't worry about it." Kaito put a hand on his shoulder and Hakuba winced. His breath began to even out now that he had something physical, something real, anchoring him. Kaito grinned. "It won't be for much longer."

"Okay." Hakuba nodded, straightening himself out. "I'm sorry."

"Don't worry about it." Kaito thumped him on the back , as if this was a normal event. "It's your first time seeing it. I told you the jelly monster freaked me out. These little guys aren't as bad."

"They are if they hit you." Yukari rubbed her arm where the thing had banged into her. "Stay behind us and you'll be fine."

"Yeah, let us do the work." Junpei pointed at himself, even as he said 'us.' We've been doing this for a while now. No Shadow can get the better of Junpei Iori!"

Kaito nodded, holding tightly onto Hakuba's wrist. The detective was starting to look sick, even if he was getting calmer. "Let's go."

They continued onward until they came upon a brightly decorated door that was clearly for the better-paying customers.

:: _Through there. I can't get a good reading on the Shadow. I'm afraid you're on your own_ ::

"Not quite."

Kaito jumped, fists up in a vain attempt to ward off whatever was behind him. Kaito knew he was terrible at hand-to-hand fighting.

Another teen was there raising his hands, palms up, with a smile on his face. "Come now. I came here to help, not fight you."

"Akihiko-senpai!" The group turned to smile at the newcomer. Kaito quickly caught on that he was one of them and shoved his hands back into his pockets.

The teen smiled. It was unsettling on someone whose hair had already turned white. There was a bandage on his cheek that told Kaito he wasn't new to fighting. The guy looked like he could knock him out with one hit.

"Are we ready then?" Junpei pushed the door open before Kaito had an answer to that question. White light blinded him and suddenly his brain became fogged with contentment.

_I shouldn't feel so relaxed right now,_ Kaito found himself thinking. Not that there was anything that he could do about it. The white space seem to envelope him in what he could only describe as a warm hug from a missed family member. It didn't even matter that he couldn't see two inches in front of him.

_**Embrace your desire.**_

The words seemed to float out of nowhere and the world came back to him slowly. He was on a bed. The lights around him were dim, but he didn't find himself put off by that. The darkened atmosphere was equally as warm as the bright one.

_**I am the voice of your inner self. Enjoy the moment. That which cannot be felt is merely a dream... The present is all we have.**_

The voice was nice. It's right too, Kaito thought. If he didn't feel nervous about Hakuba, scared about what would happen in the time they had remaining in this mixed-up place, then none of it had to be real. He lay his head down on the pillow and let those thoughts take over. Nothing had to be real. His problems could vanish if he didn't think about them.

_**The future is but a fantasy, memory a fabrication. Let your desire free you from your shackles... such is my wish**_

And what a nice wish. Kaito relaxed into the sheets - but some unease started to form in his stomach. His memories didn't lie to him. His father was in his memories. He cherished those moments that were taken away from him. Anger was there and the soothing voice couldn't quench it.

_**Pleasure is what you truly want. You stand before the doorway to bliss.**_

Pleasure? Kaito shook his head. That's not what he wanted; at least, not at the moment. He had things to do. His father's murderers were going to get away if he just sat there and pretended they didn't exist. The spell was broken and Kaito shook his head as he sat up. Somehow he'd gotten into one of the rooms.

"Hm." Kaito put a hand up to his face and leaned forward as he took in the room. His thief side ached for him to take in the surrounding area before making a move and those instincts had yet to fail him. He was sitting on a large circular bed. He could see a couch with a picture of flowers behind it. On the wall was a giant mirror.

"I always thought I'd go to one of these places with a girl. Kind of sucks being here a lone. Worse, being here with Hakuba-kun." Kaito sighed, getting up. "Guess I should figure out what happened."

He opened the door before scanning the hallway for enemies. When none popped up, he closed the door and headed for the stairs.

"Kuroba-kun."

Kaito jumped, sighing as he let his hands fall back to his side.

"Don't do that!"

"My apologies." Hakuba came around the corner where the two hallways met. "I didn't intend to startle you."

"Yeah, well." Kaito ran a hand trough his hair and messed it up, not that it could get messier. "Don't do it again. Have you seen any of those guys?"

"Not as of yet." Hakuba tilted his head towards the stairs. "You first."

"Of course me first." Kaito went ahead of the detective as he knew that the Brit wouldn't admit to being afraid. "I always get to be one step ahead of you."

"There they are."

Kaito jumped again, swearing quietly to himself when Yukari looked down at them. "Hurry up."

"I'm hurrying, I'm hurrying." Kaito winked at her when he reached the top. "You just want to get me alone in that room, don't you?"

Yukari raised her hand as if she were going to hit him and Kaito backed off. The blue-haired boy who was ahead of them turned to face them, and they could see a red mark on his cheek. Okay, he wasn't going to make fun of Yukari for the time being.

"What happened?"

"I don't know." She sighed. "When I woke up I was... in one of the rooms." There was something she wasn't saying, but Kaito had a few guesses as to why. The way the boy blushed added a few more.

"There you guys are." The teen that had joined their party of misfits before the light somehow transported them ran up to the group, flanked by Junpei. Now that Kaito had the time, he was going to look him over. Though his hair was unnaturally white, he looked young, around eighteen or nineteen. He was wearing a red vest over a white long-sleeved shirt.

The teen inclined his head. "Who are they?"

"Apparently they fell into the Dark Hour when they came here," Yukari explained. I don't think they're from the area."

"Saguru Hakuba. I'd like to have met you under different circumstances, but it seems that can't be helped." Hakuba bowed slightly to the other.

"Kaito Kuroba." Kaito didn't bow, not trusting that he'd remain safe if his eyes left the surrounding area. Better to be alive and rude than dead and polite.

"Hello there, to both of you. I'm Akihiko Sanada."

"Now that you know who they are, can we get on with this?" Junpei rung his hands excitedly on hilt of his large sword.

"Yes, well, we should take care of the Shadow first." Akihiko smiled. "Let's go."

"I swear, I think eagerness to run into danger runs in the blood of the entire male population," Yukari mumbled as she took off.

"I won't deny that." I winked at Hakuba before setting off at the group's pace.

"You may not be able to, but I have no problem with it." Hakuba turned and coughed again. It looked like he was getting a cold.

"Are you all right?"

"I'll be fine." Hakuba smiled before racing ahead of Kaito to prove his point.

Kaito sighed, grinning. "And you just denied it too, hypocrite."

They made it back to the door, prepared to put up a fight this time.

"Okay, let's try this again." Junpei opened up the door. Kaito became annoyed at the white light that swallowed them again. There were no sweet words this time. The entire group was suddenly in another room, one unlike the one Kaito had appeared in. They stared at one another in confusion.

Akihiko peeked out the door. "We're back on the first floor."

Most of the people in the room groaned, with Hakuba being the only exception as he appeared happy that they weren't about to go into battle. Kaito couldn't find any arguments against such thoughts.

"The same thing will happen if we keep doing this. I don't feel like running around in circles." Yukari sat on the bed. "What's the plan?"

Kaito leaned against the wall, away from the couch and near the mirror. Something caught his eye that he hadn't seen in the room he'd first woken up in.

"Well now, things get creepier."

"What?" Hakuba asked, still next to him.

Kaito grinned and went over to tap Junpei on the shoulder. "Can I borrow that for a moment?" Kaito pointed at his sword.

"No way!" The teen withdrew it in tight arms as if he were protecting his child. "It's mine!"

"Fine then." Kaito moved to the blue-haired boy. His dark eyes held a questioning look, but he held out his short sword without asking for a reason.

"Thank you."

He nodded, folding his hands into his pockets the way Kaito always did. It seemed they were very much alike, the magician thought.

Kaito played around with the sword for a moment. He knew how to use one, but he wasn't an expert. He would have preferred a gun. A real gun. One that shot bullets. Not whatever it was that these guys were shooting themselves with. For now, then, the sword would do.

Taking a few steps back, Kaito grinned at Hakuba. "Move."

The detective wasn't an idiot. He moved as Kaito drove the blade with as much force as he could into the mirror. The glass shattered without falling to the floor.

"What did you do that for?" Junpei asked, holding his sword in front of him as thoughts of Kaito going off the deep end must of been circling around in his mind. There was a pulse of energy and Kaito saw the lights darken.

:: _The Shadow_'_s power is weakening! The barrier around the room will fall if you can find the rest of its weak points_. ::

Everyone looked surprised at this information. The boy with the blue hair understood though, and gave Kaito a knowing grin that the magician returned.

"Wait." Hakuba put a hand up and stared at what was left of the mirror. "How did you know to break it?"

"Simple." Kaito handed the sword back. "When I woke up, I remembered looking at my reflection. My mind was a little - foggy, and I wanted to make sure that nothing had happened with that weird light. This mirror - " Kaito pointed at said mirror - "Didn't reflect. I figured I'd hit it and see what happened. If I was wrong, I was wrong."

Junpei started to laugh. "Jeez, you sure are something! I mean, you don't even care about the property damage?"

"Not really." Kaito smirked. "I've done worse than broken a mirror. I suppose now I'll have seven years' bad luck."

"Not you." Hakuba sighed. "I swear, you have the luck of the devil."

"I'll take that as a good thing." Kaito saluted them. "So let's go. You guys get to fight your big bad monster and we get to go home. You have no idea how worried my mom's gonna be if I make her wait any longer."

"And now the guy's worried about what his mom will think." Junpei shook his head. "I like you."

"Good." Kaito let his grin turn slightly evil and stared at the teen's sword. "Because I don't like you."

"Hey, don't take it personally. It's just that this is mine."

"Let's stop the bickering, children." Yukari met everyone's eyes to show that she wasn't in the mood to argue. "Right now we need to find the other mirrors that this Shadow is using to put up the barrier around the door. Let's split up and see if we can find them." Yukari held onto Hakuba's arm and attempted to drag him out of the room. When the boy with the blue hair met her eyes she looked away. Kaito was close enough to see her blush. "Let's go in pairs so that the new guys aren't in danger if we get attacked."

Hakuba tried to look over his shoulder at them, but Yukari closed the door and took off. Kaito laughed.

"I'm going to have so much fun with Hakuba-kun when this is over."

"I guess I'll go with Junpei, then." Akihiko opened the door and left without a backward glance. Junpei raced after him.

"Wait, what kind of committee decision was that? You can't just take off before-" His voice faded down the hall. Kaito shrugged.

"I guess it's just the two of us."

The boy nodded, without appearing displeased that he wasn't able to go with Yukari. Weird. Kaito didn't like riddles being waved in front of his face.

"So, do you like her?"

The boy stopped and turned back slowly, neutrality printed across his features. "I don't know. I haven't known her for long."

"And it's no fun developing a relationship in these life or death situations. I got you." Kaito opened the door and waited, picking up on the sounds of the others. He may not have been good at fighting, but detecting almost undetectable noises was his specialty. "This way." Kaito started off in the direction that he heard nothing from, the teen at his side.

All their rooms were duds. They met up with Hakuba and Yukari at one point before separating again. It was Akihiko and Junpei who found the two remaining mirrors.

"You should have just followed us," Junpei bragged. "I knew I was good, but man, I must be lucky too."

Yukari sighed and Hakuba moved closer to Kaito again, now that they were together. Though they weren't what anyone would call friends, it beat strangers that the detective had only just met under less than pleasant terms.

"Okay, _now_ is everyone ready?" Junpei placed his hands on the door for a third time. The boy must have loved excitement because he took the immediate silence, a silence that couldn't have lasted more than a second, as the go-ahead. "Good, because here we go!"


	4. Spirited Away

**Important: Minato will change Personae throughout the story. From the beginning though *and I should have said something. Sorry* He's had Ares**

* * *

_**Chapter 4: Spirited Away**_

Though still confused, Kaito started at the floating thing in front of them. It was a heart... with wings... and a face... and seemed either to be bleeding or melting, Kaito wasn't sure which. The thing, though larger than he had predicted, didn't look nearly as intimidating as the blob he'd run into last month. This creature didn't even have arms.

None of the others appeared overly worried, so he tried to stay relaxed. It was only when he glanced over at Hakuba that he felt something was wrong.

"Hey." Kaito took a few steps back from the group as they prepared to attack. "What's the matter?"

The blond didn't look good. He was shaking and holding his arms across his chest, trying to back out the door that had closed behind them. Kaito was confused, putting a hand on the detective's shoulder. Hakuba twitched, closing more in on himself instead. "Come on, it's not that bad."

Hakuba shook his head. "...not the monsters."

Okay. Kaito had never heard him speak in an incomplete sentence before, let alone one that didn't make sense. "What about the monster?"

"It's not the monster. Something's wrong, Kuroba-kun. I need to get out of here. Please." Hakuba crouched down, trying to make himself as small as possible.

"Hey!" Kaito shouted over at the group, who had yet to engage in battle. "Do you guys know what's wrong with him?"

The blue-haired leader shook his head. "No. It didn't infect us with anything."

_How informative_, Kaito wanted to say sarcastically. He didn't even know they _could_ be infected. And with what?

It was the white-haired teen who seemed to take Hakuba's condition seriously. He'd been in a ready stance before, but now his fists hung loosely at his side. Junpei was ignoring them all together, focusing on getting a chance to attack the monster first.

There was a burst of fire and Kaito moved to shield himself, along with Hakuba. The blue-haired boy stepped in front of them. Though the fire hit him head-on, it only seemed to leave behind a hint of ash on his clothes, leaving his skin intact. The blue-haired boy had kept the flames from getting past.

"I've got them. Take care of the Shadow."

Akihiko nodded at the command, following the order immediately even though he seemed to be older and the one who should have been taking the lead.

Junpei, Yukari, and Akihiko attacked, and they didn't have much difficulty fighting without the boy. Several times he protected Hakuba and him from the heart Shadow lashing out. It was amazing they way the boy was able to repel something so big with only a short sword.

The problem came when Akihiko was knocked back by something that Kaito could swear was pink.

"Uh oh." Junpei started to back away from his partner. "I've got nothing. What about you Yuka-tan?"

"No, I didn't pick up anything either!" They both started across at his little group of three. The blue-haired boy shook his head. That couldn't be good.

Akihiko smiled and it wasn't something that Kaito ever wanted to see again. If there was a word for it, he would have called it evil. Truly evil. Akihiko began to eerily glow, and his glazed eyes looked – possessed.

Akihiko pointed the gun to his head, firing.

"Mazio".

The blue haired boy's eyes widened. Kaito knew that meant something bad was about to happen. The magician tried his best to protect his hunched-over classmate. He had promised Hakuba he wouldn't let anything happen to him.

The next instant, lightning seemed to come from nowhere. The blue-haired boy was knocked off his feet, charred again by the impact. Kaito shut his eyes, expecting to be hit next.

But nothing happened.

It took him a few moments to take a peek and see what had happened. His newly made acquaintances were all getting to their feet - aside from Akihiko - and looking at Kaito as if he'd just sprouted horns. Kaito couldn't blame them.

There seemed to be a force field, or something like it, around both him and the detective. It took his logical side, which he was shocked he was still relying on at this point, only seconds to see the source of it was Hakuba, who was currently glowing a ghostly white around the edges of his body.

"Hakuba-kun. How are you doing that?"

"I don't- know." The blond took in a deep, unsteady breath, almost as if he were in pain. "But it hurts. Make it stop."

Then it was as if the light from Hakuba was touching Kaito. The magician backed away on instinct but the light followed him and, where it came in contact with his skin, made him feel stronger than he ever had. He watched his hands to see the while light fading into his skin as it awoke his potential and then some. That same light seemed to travel to the others and Kaito stared in awe and confusion with them.

"Stop it!" Hakuba tried in vain to get away from it all. The barrier around him faded but the light remained.

"Wow. I feel stronger than ever. Did he cast something on us? How did he do it without summoning his Persona?" Junpei drew in closer to Hakuba and him, though it was more because the boy was still trying to put some distance between himself and Akihiko. The white-haired teen, though he accepted the light, was still not himself.

The blue-haired boy moved in on them as well with a curious look in his eyes. He stopped in front of Kaito and handed over his gun.

"What are you giving me that for?" the magician asked in shock. "I don't want it!"

"Do you want to help, or hide?" The boy kept the gun out in front of him. "It's your choice or not, to see if you can."

"Ya think that the other kid has a Persona too? Really, man. I thought were supposed to be special or something." Junpei's earlier expression of surprise remained as he stared at the detective on the floor, who continued to glow.

Kaito looked down at his classmate before accepting the gun.

"How does this work?"

The blue haired boy used two fingers and pointed to his head. "Easy."

Yeah, real easy. Kaito held the very realistic gun in his hand, feeling the cool metal against his fingers where the grip ended. This wasn't only a question about being scared anymore though. Kaito was curious. Whatever this power the other kids had was, he wanted it too. The greed for that power scared him, but not enough to stop. Having something like that would be different, exciting. And when Kaito wanted something, he usually got it.

"Okay then." He rested the barrel against his head, unable to get rid of his anxiety but going through with it anyway. "If this doesn't work, I won't die, right?"

The blue-haired boy shrugged. The other two newcomers didn't answer or hadn't heard. "Akihiko-senpai could have told you, but his mind is a little busy right now."

Kaito swallowed dryly. These people were insane. They all shot themselves in the head routinely, not knowing whether it would give them powers or kill them? Kaito had been called crazy more than once and for good reason, but not that crazy.

It was the curiosity that won him over. "Fine." His finger found the trigger, knowing that no one should ever remove it past the guard unless they were ready to fire.

He tightened his finger, prepared for the worst, making sure his eyes were closed so he wouldn't have to watch death come at him if he was wrong.

It was almost like a jolt of electricity ran through his body. It hurt, but not in a physical way. It was as if every sense and emotion he had ever felt was a vibrant shade of white at the forefront of his mind. He found himself grinning.

Opening his eyes, he instinctively looked above him where he'd seen the other boy's - _Monster? Was that what it was? Did they all have their own personal monsters?_ - above his head. Kaito's grin only grew more when he saw it.

"A dragon," Kaito said to no one in particular. "I have a dragon."

Those emotions that had been awakened by the shock didn't vanish. In fact, Kaito thought they were what was helping give the large blue beast keep its physical appearance. The creature had a green mane around two large white horns and cat-like whiskers. It stared back down at him for a moment before facing the heart creature.

Kaito knew how the monster could attack. Knew not only that he had what seemed to be the same magical power of lightning that Akihiko had, but that his were stronger.

With a smile to his new dragon companion he spoke the words that sounded so natural to him now in association with the electric power. "Ziodyne."

The heart monster shrieked as lightning fell from the ceiling of the room before the boy with the blue hair ran up to it, impaling it on his short sword as it turned to ash around the blade.

Kaito was sad to see the dragon fade out of existence as the adrenaline running through him was siphoned off by the attack. He didn't know why it made him suddenly more tired. He wanted to try again and see if things went the same way, but there was nothing to aim at and the others looked like they were ready to call it quits.

"That was so awesome." Kaito held the gun out in front of him to clear up anything his cursory glance has missed. It did indeed look like a real gun. He'd have to take it apart to see how it worked.

"Wow." Yukari spoke up."That was kinda cool."

"You all right?" The blue-haired boy moved from the spot where the monster had disintegrated, over to Akihiko who was holding his head in his hand and trying to get himself back in order.

"I'm fine." The white-haired boy blinked his eyes a few times before rushing over towards Kaito. He took a step back, still on high alert after everything that had happened. Akihiko didn't seem interested in him, though, and went to kneel besides Hakuba. Kaito scowled and looked down at the blond who still seemed to be cowering.

"Hakuba, grow up. The monster is gone, so there's nothing to be afraid of."

"You're wrong!" Akihiko snapped at him, causing Kaito to retreat another step. "He's not scared, he's sick!"

"What?" Yukari asked as she and the blue-haired boy came over to them while Junpei took it at his leisure. "What do you mean he's sick? Did the Shadow get him? The effects should have worn off by now."

"It's not that type of sickness. Mitsuru!" Akihiko shouted at the ceiling. "I need some help."

:: _The Dark hour is almost over. Keep him calm and bring him back to base. There's nothing we can do for him right now_ ::

"Got it." Akihiko placed a hand on the detective's shoulder, making Hakuba shiver. "You're going to be all right. I'll make sure of it."

"What's wrong with him then?" Yukari bent over the two, trying to see if she could spot the problem. Kaito didn't know what he was supposed to do. Everything was being thrown at him so fast that even his emotions couldn't keep up. He couldn't help it that he didn't feel worried about Hakuba. The detective wasn't hurt. The monster hadn't touched either of them.

"I've only seen this happen once." Akihiko moved his hand, massaging Hakuba's shoulder to try and get him to relax. "It's what happens when a Persona user can't control their Persona. Last time I was around someone with this problem... something very bad happened."

"You mean he could attack us?" Yukari backed up and Junpei followed suit. The blue-haired boy shot Kaito a glance as neither of them moved.

"It's a possibility," Akihiko admitted. He spoke to Hakuba directly. "Can you hear me?"

The detective had covered his head in an attempt to hide from the world around him. He lowered his hands now, far enough to unveil his eyes, gleaming with something close to madness. It finally hit him then. The rush of excitement he had at getting a dragon - his own dragon, however it had happened - was gone, and he was with his classmate again who seemed to be suffering.

"I wish I had some medicine on me," he heard Akihiko speak under his breath."Boy, ah..." He turned to Kaito. "What's his name again?"

"Saguru Hakuba."

"Hakuba." Akihiko pushed a hand through the detective's bangs so that he could see his face. Kaito didn't like that spark in his friend's eyes. "I need you to hold out just a little while longer. After the Dark Hour is over, this won't affect you anymore. I'll get you some help once that happens."

Hakuba didn't seem to be listening but focused with a predator's intensity on Akihiko. The other teen noticed but didn't move away from him like the others had.

"Can I do anything?" Kaito asked, remembering he still held the blue-haired boy's gun. He quickly handed it back.

"No. I need to get in touch with a friend of mine and get some medicine. We... this is something that we don't know much about. I'm going to be truthful with you though, my friend who has this same problem – it's making him sick. He won't let us try to figure out what's wrong with him, but it's only getting worse." Akihiko's lips quirked slightly, but Kaito never would have called it a smile "But I doubt your friend will refuse treatment if we can get it to him, so I wouldn't worry until we know more about what's going on."

Hakuba was sick with something that these people didn't seem to have a good grasp on. The only one out of them who appeared to know anything about it was Akihiko, and Kaito couldn't even get a handle on what he was trying to explain. It sounded like a whole bunch of guesswork. It made him a lot less comfortable in their presence and he realized that he had trusted them to know what was going on better than he did, simply because they seemed to know what they were doing. He didn't know whether it was right or not to continue trusting them, but he had no other choice and he could tell that they weren't lying to him.

Kaito watched with something that mirrored awe when Hakuba leaned forward, letting glowing white wings form from the light surrounding him. The delicate white, ghostly feathers stretched out alongside the door followed by a ghostly image of long blond hair flowing down Hakuba's back. His light-blue eyes seemed to shine and give him all the aura of an angel.

The only thing wrong with the image was the hungry smile on his lips.

"Hakuba." Kaito saw Akihiko's hand on him shake but he didn't budge. "You need to calm down. You don't want to hurt anyone. Wait. Everything will be fine if you just wait. We're all friends here. No one is going to hurt you. There's no danger."

The teen spoke calmly and in short sentences, attempting to reassure the detective that the situation was under control. Kaito felt the urge to back up and fought with it every second. The blue-haired boy seemed didn't seem worried initially, but when the wings appeared he put a hand on Akihiko's shoulder. Whether he was trying to reassure him or get him to back away, Kaito couldn't tell.

His hand stayed there while neither budged, both focused on Hakuba.

"Don't move," Akihiko whispered towards Kaito instead of Hakuba. The magician was under the opinion that he could read people much better than this new acquaintance of his could, and knew perfectly well what any movement would do. Hakuba was prepared to strike them at a second's provocation.

"So what are we supposed to do, sit here and wait for the Dark Hour to end? Your friend's blocking the door." Junpei swung his large sword over his shoulder and walked up to them, eyeing the blue-haired boy with a challenging gaze.

Kaito held his breath, waiting for the worst to happen. Not only had Junpei said the words loudly, but he then moved forward with a weapon. Any cornered creature would have reacted badly to that.

There was a flash and something that may have been noise but there was no time to focus on that.

All Kaito saw was black painted through with streaks of white corroding his vision. leaving his perception in shambles. He was in pain. It was sudden, and searing, though it felt nothing like fire. When he became aware of anything besides the darkness and torment, it was the dirty smell of the carpet in the room. He tired to lift himself up off the ground, but every muscle hurt to move. In the end, Kaito gave up, propping himself up an elbow so he could look around He saw the blue-haired boy, who'd been unlucky enough to hit the end of the bed. The boy got up on shaky arms, but they didn't have a chance to look at one another.

Hakuba was still glowing, though the wings were gone, having separated from him as an angel with blonde hair and a white robe donning a cross floated above him.

"Scum." Hakuba started walking towards him. Kaito tried to get up on his feet, but couldn't. The detective grabbed the scruff of his shirt and pulled him into a sitting position as he knelt in front him. Hakuba's blue eyes were almost white, gazing at Kaito self-righteously before he grinned, scaring the hell out of him.

"Hakuba, calm down. I don't know what's wrong, but-"

The detective put his hand on Kaito's cheek. It wasn't burning, but Hakuba felt so much hotter than he was. It worried him, considering Kaito had felt hot since entering the stuffy motel. Hakuba slid his hand down his cheek until it was brushing against his neck – and without warning, began to choke him.

Kaito tried to fight back, but the energy just wasn't there. He was hurt and tired after that dragon thing had appeared. His fingers clawed at Hakuba's, trying to get him to let go, but even Kaito knew what a pathetic attempt it was. His mind was screaming for him to stop, though he could hardly make a sound, given the situation. Black crawled quickly across his vision, blinding him before he was aware of what was going on.

The room continued to spin for a few moments before that too stopped. It all happened so quickly, Kaito didn't even know what was what.

_Am I still alive?_

"-back away."

There were words, but listening to them was hard. Focusing on anything more than the pain was asking for him to drop his defenses and scream at the severity of it. Kaito let his mind take check of the damage that had been done without moving, before daring to open his eyes.

Hakuba was standing over him, a foot or so off to his right. Kaito looked at him through half-closed eyes, unable to move. The blond had a frown on his face, one eye closed and hands clenched tightly to his sides. As Kaito's vision cleared, he saw the sweat running down the detective's face.

"We're all friends here." Akihiko stepped forward, arms held out. "We're here to help."

"What help are you?"

Kaito coughed, having taken in too quick a breath after hearing the words. It wasn't Hakuba's voice. Not even close. There was no accent present that resembled anything English. Fluent, pitch-perfect Japanese echoed dully in the room in deep baritones that Kaito knew Hakuba's voice couldn't reach. The detective took a step back after speaking, one hand half raised in a gesture that was either him ready to attack them again, or Hakuba fighting against his own actions.

"You can be weak, but not when it's hurting those around you." Hakuba spun around as the blue-hair boy's voice resonated around the room. "Know who you are."

"How dare-" Hakuba drew back, closing both eyes completely. Kaito could have sworn he heard him whimper. The whispered voice that came out was the one with deep roots set in some language that sounded like it had been lost throughout time, but Hakuba's none the less. "Stop it..."

Akihiko spoke again. "Hold on, just a little longer. All you need to do is wait. Everything will be better soon." The blond didn't look good. He twitched at movements that weren't there, eyes wide and hands up almost like claws. Kaito couldn't do anything to help, feeling himself start to nod off.

The standoff remained unbroken for the next few minutes, each too wary of the other to make the first move.

"What the Hell was that?" Junpei must have been on the other side of the bed, because Kaito could only hear his voice.

"Be quite and don't move." Akihiko was angry. Junpei glared at each of them in turn. Hakuba hissed, backing up closer to the blue-haired teen. The other didn't move. "Junpei, settle down and listen to me. Next time I tell you not to move, don't move."

"Hey I didn't do-"

"Don't talk."

"But I'm only talking! You told me I only had to listen to-"

"Be quiet. Now."

Junpei stopped, leaning his arms against the bed and watching the three of them. Hakuba's eyes stayed on Akihiko, though he tensed up when the blue-haired boy stifled a cough. No one was sure of what to do, though Akihiko kept repeating quiet words of solace to Hakuba that Kaito couldn't catch. He wasn't sure how much time had passed, but his attention was drawn to Junpei as the seconds ticked away in his mind, watching as the other boy steadily grew antsier.

Almost like an old movie fading out, the color disappeared from the world, turning the molted green back into dark shadows that had them sitting in the motel room. The light apparently wasn't on and they found themselves suddenly in pitch blackness. Akihiko must have moved to get the light switch, because when Kaito could see again, he was clear across the room. Hakuba was on his knees, hands over his head and most definitely sobbing.

"Hey, you idiot, what the hell happened?" Kaito was only able to sit up before deciding that it hurt too much to try anything more, grateful he was at least able to do that. He watched Hakuba weakly shake his head, making choked-up noises that Kaito tried to ignore.

Akihiko took initiative, bending down on one knee and gently placing his hands on Hakuba's shaking shoulders.

"It's all right now. It can't take over you when the Dark Hour ends."

"What-" Hakuba swallowed, voice ragged. "Why did- I didn't- It was-... ah-"

"Don't worry about it. I'll explain it all to you once you settle down. Well get you help."

"Can you-" Kaito caught a glimpse of his eyes when Hakuba forced himself to face Akihiko, clearly suffering, eyes glassed over and dilated to the point where Kaito couldn't see any blue in them. The tears weren't any easier to miss. "Can you stop this? Can you make it so this never happens again?"

"I-" Akihiko shook his head. "I'm not sure. We can certainly try. If it doesn't work, we'll figure something out."

Hakuba didn't want to hear that. More tears were there and he was back to covering his face and trying to make himself as small as he could from the other occupants in the room.

"What the hell, man! That was really something messed up!" Junpei seemed in better shape than the rest of them, strolling over to Hakuba and bending over him. "You know, you're not supposed to go attacking your friends. What the hell?"

"Junpei, shut up!"

"Why? Because I have to trust some guy who just tired to kill us? I mean, come on! He can't even use his Persona right!"

"That's not-!"

Hakuba stood up, backing away from all of them as quickly as he could. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to..."

"To what? Try to kill us? Of course you didn't. That doesn't change the fact that you did." Junpei's tone were biting, and by the way Akihiko was glaring at him, Kaito and he had the same opinion of his words. If he could have stood up, Kaito would have loved to teach the other teen how to behave less like a savage dog and more like a human being.

Both of them were more concerned with Hakuba to spend much time plotting the many things Junpei could be compared to. The blond had backed away towards the door, hand resting on the decorated knob. In seconds, he was off, running as far away as he could get.

Kaito cursed as he stood. His body shook when he was finally up, but he ignored it, going after Hakuba. Akihiko had been the first to go after the detective, but Kaito had taken some time getting to his feet and the blue-haired boy only regained his senses around the same time Kaito had. They took off together, leaving Junpei to take care of Yukari.

Hallway. Another hallway. Stairs. Another hallway. Kaito wanted to curse with how long it took them to get to the door. He wanted to collapse once they reached the outside the building but forced himself forward, surprised he made it down all the stairs without falling on his face. He slowed down when he saw Akihiko currently at a standstill in front of them.

"Look, more little mice have come to play." The voice came from several feet ahead of them. There were three figures standing in front of a building that it looked like they'd just exited. Kaito had never seen any of them before. Hakuba was the closest one to the new arrivals, stopped dead in his tracks by something Kaito must have missed.

"I'm sorry, but we only have room in our group for the worthy." The older looking of the three stepped forward; long gray-blond hair streamed down his bare chest, and sickly gray tattoos marked his arms. He offered a hand in Hakuba's direction. "We can make the pain stop. You'll never again lose control like you just did. Nyx takes care of all her children, while the ruthlessness of the world tries to kill us. Come, my boy. You belong with us."

Kaito caught Hakuba's eyes as the detective looked over at him, face falling as he stared at the floor, shaking his head. The blond looked back up at the older man. "You- You can stop this? But you..." Hakuba grabbed at his arm where he'd been previously injured by that bullet. Hakuba's expression spoke of fear, but Kaito couldn't understand it. Everything the idiot was doing was confusing him right now.

"Why, of course. All you need to do is put your trust in us and we can help make your wildest dreams come true. All I ask is for your cooperation. That or you stay here and die. If you can't regain control of your Persona, it _will_ kill you. Slowly at first, but believe me it's one of the worst ways to go."

"What?" Hakuba wasn't the only one turning on Akihiko. The white-haired teen shook his head.

"It doesn't have to kill. We just need time, and I know that there's medicine for it!"

"And who do you think made that medicine?" A boy with blue tinted hair, brushed to the left side of his face, wearing a bright green coat with straps that made it look as if he were sporting a parachute stepped forward. "You're god? Come on, you know better than that. We're the only ones who know how to get the drug you're talking about."

"That can't-" Akihiko shook his head. "That can't be true!"

"So, you can help?" Hakuba started towards them.

"Don't, you idiot!" Kaito shouted.

Hakuba turned towards him with a weak smile. "I don't want to hurt anyone, ever again."

"And so another lamb is added to the flock." The older man placed his arm around Hakuba's shoulders. Kaito watched, seeing the detective look more content than he ever had before. "I'll have your medicine by nightfall. We shall make this world right. I'm sure you're no strangers to the wrongs that plague it."

"No, I'm not." Hakuba seemed... happy. Kaito shook his head, watching the older man. This wasn't natural. Hakuba wasn't the type of person to warm up to someone that quickly. Something had to be going on that he was missing.

"Come, my little fledgling, we have much to discuss."

Hakuba smiled at the older man, looking like a child under his arm. Kaito refocused his attention on the other two in search of answers, distracted early the strange phenomenon occurring before him. The was another man in green with the parachute backpack, not much older than himself, shook his head. This older teen walked beside the white-haired man, muttering something with a frown on his face as they left, something that sounded a lot like '_So Jin, are they our enemy?_' Kaito only caught a glimpse of a girl in white before he tried to get to move his feet, pain lacing though his body though he didn't see any wounds.

"Hakuba, you idiot! Where do you think you're going?"

Their eyes meet for the first time since the attack with the detective looking away so quickly that he couldn't study him. Hakuba's irises were closer to their normal shade, expressing some hidden joy that made Kaito more confused than he was. Hakuba shook his head, turning forward and smiling at the man like a little puppy.

Akihiko didn't follow them, and Kaito couldn't blame him. Whoever that man was that Hakuba had just left with, he was dangerous. Kaito couldn't be sure until the man had turned away from them, but it looked as if he had a gun shoved into the back of his jeans. If he'd been wearing a shirt, Kaito never would have seen it. This was looked real too. Unlike the strange, custom ones that didn't shoot bullets that everyone else was carrying, a revolver was easy to spot.

"Who were they?" Kaito hissed out, looking to the white-haired teen for answers. He seemed just as lost as Kaito was.

"I don't know. I've never seen them around before. I think they were here the whole time." Akihiko turned back to his blue-haired companion. "I think they might be Persona users. They knew too much."

The boy nodded, sharing a glance with Kaito. Unlike the rest, the magician didn't feel the need to speak his concerns aloud to this boy. Simple eye contact went farther with him than it did with anyone else that Kaito had ever come across.

"First thing first, we need to see Mitsuru. I don't think that leaving Hakuba in their care is a good thing."

Kaito nodded in agreement, accepting a hand to steady himself with as he walked. Rest. He needed to rest before anything else. Then, after that, he needed some type of explanation as to what had just happened, both inside the building and out.

"So, you're the hero again, huh?"

Junpei's voice almost made Kaito fall to the floor from the shock. No more startling for the time being. He had to make that a rule or something.

Junpei and the blue-haired teen stared each other down, Kaito sensing the tension that hung around the darker boy. Junpei shook his head, eyes down, and pushing past them. "I always do the wrong thing, I know that's what you're all thinking!"

"Junpei, that's not..." Yukari crept around the door, using the frame to remain standing. She didn't look so good. "It's not that. If you had just-"

"Shut up!"

Everyone froze. Kaito shout echoed around the quiet neighborhood, but that was fine. He was through with their petty arguments. He couldn't get himself involved with them. That would be wrong. But who was he kidding? He was already involved until he found out what kind of spell or whatever Hakuba was under and he got his classmate back. Kaito glared as darkly as he could at the tallest boy, midnight-blue hat hiding his face as he stood a good few feet in front of them.

"Worry less about yourself," Kaito growled as threatening as he could, surprising every person there with how different the tone of his voice sounded, "and more about others, or you'll lose every friend you have in this world."

Like that, the tension dissipated, replaced by curiosity, confusion, and fear.

"Yeah, sorry."

Junpei didn't look sorry, but it would have to do. Kaito relaxed, pleading with the blue-haired boy next to him. He smiled tiredly at the other boy, seeing an equally tired, if not more resolved smile on his face. Ignoring the others, Kaito and the boy nodded to one another. He couldn't tell why he was so drawn to the blue-haired kid, but then again, he couldn't explained to anyone who asked how he was friends with Hakuba either.

"If it's not too much trouble, could I please borrow a bed? And, while you're at it, I would really like to know your name."

...

...

**Important!: **Yes, Kaito has a **stronger** Persona at the moment, but that was **nessaary** because he will be spending time away from the others for a while, and not, shall we say 'leveling up' as they do, so he needed basic powers.

**Don't think I'm making Kaito the strong one. I'm most certainly not. **_That just wouldn't be fun 0_-_


	5. Discord In the Ranks

Hi. I'm sorry for not contacting you but if you've been my beta reader for this my updates, what with the co-written story I'm working on, are just too long and sporadic.  
To everyone eles, I don't think I'm gonna have a beta for most, if not all of my stories anymore, so I'm sorry if I overlooked some of my mistakes.

I'm also sorry this took so long in coming. Hakuba is not acutally a main character so hopefully I can get along with the story now. (At least, not as 'main character' as Kaito is.)

* * *

_**Chapter 5: Discord In the Ranks**_

Kaito was pacing the small boarding room they had lent him. Akihiko's room was next door and the others were across the hall. He couldn't settle down.

Hakuba. Brainy, self-righteous, egomaniac detective had gotten himself as good as kidnapped, though he'd walked willingly enough into the arms of his captors. That made it all the worse. Last night hadn't been a good night.

He'd phoned his mother, telling her that he'd been caught up in something and would be missing school that day. He didn't vouch for Hakuba because, if questions arose, they would go to Kaito for answers, and he wasn't sure what he was supposed to tell them.

A nights rest had gotten rid of most of the pain. He still felt sick and sore, but nothing that he hadn't dealt with in the past. These... Shadows, were something new.

Someone knocked at the door. Kaito was already standing so he walked over and let them in himself. Akihiko was there. He'd been close by ever since they'd come to the dormitory all of them were staying in. Kaito found himself having to shake the other teen off him, since it seemed that the white-haired boy felt responsible for last night. Kaito had tried contradicting him, since Akihiko was the one who had known how to handle the situation and the reason that Hakuba hadn't unwittingly murdered the lot of them, but he wouldn't have it.

"What?" Kaito watched the other teen with tired eyes. "I already told you that no one blames you."

"It's not that." Akihiko looked nervous. Kaito didn't need to have his experience gauging people to see that the white-haired teen was forcing himself to be there. "Are you going to be going home after this?"

"I don't know," Kaito answered honestly. He couldn't just leave Hakuba, but staying wasn't going to do any good because he didn't know where to look.

"You're friend- we can try to get him back ourselves, but..."

"What?" Kaito leaned against the door, pushing it the rest of the way against the wall. Standing was taxing enough without having to try to make sense of Akihiko's words.

"You're friend is sick, in a way of speaking, but not in the way you might be thinking. He should have..." Akihiko sighed when his own words failed him. "If he keeps unwillingly losing control of his Persona like he did last night, it could take control of him. We're human and humans have impulses. With Persona, they don't know right from wrong, which is why we learn to control them. They're the rawest form of what we are. I'm afraid if we leave your friend be, he may end up doing something he'll regret."

Kaito closed his eyes, knowing full well what would happen if something like that occurred. Hakuba had only tossed them around a little and even that had shaken the detective up enough for him to go running off. If he actually hurt someone... killed someone...

"Not only that. When we lose control of our Persona, it takes its toll on us."

"What do you mean?"

Akihiko shook his head. "I'm not that sure. I've only known it to happen once, so I can't say that it will happen again with Hakuba, but once a friend of mine lost control, it hurt him. It's like a sickness. It's kind of like over exerting yourself and not being able to stop."

"So, _if_ I get him back, is there a way to stop it?"

"Not for sure, no." Akihiko's gray eyes were remorseful. "And those people last night were strong. Even if we found them, you don't have the battle experience necessary to take them on. I can't even say for sure that those of us here do."

"So you're telling me there's nothing I can do to help him and that I should go home."

"Pretty much, though I can only say that for myself. I've got a fair guess that everyone else here has the opposite opinion. I know how you're feeling Kuroba, but there's nothing you can do here. You're an outsider, and if something happens to you like it did Hakuba, it would only hinder us."

Kaito sighed. "I was planning on going home after tonight if I couldn't find him. But that's only after tonight. I _am_ going to look for Hakuba. I can't desert the guy, not when..." He recalled how terrified the detective was of coming here in the first place. It was Kaito who had egged him on until he had no choice but to follow- because Kaito was scared too, and hadn't wanted to come back alone. "I have to at least try."

"I can't stop you if that's what you want. We don't have a spare evoker to give you, so if you run into trouble, you're on your own."

"Evoker?"

Akihiko pointed a finger to his head.

"Oh, one of those guns."

"They aren't guns, they're-"

"I don't care." Kaito held up a hand to stop a long winded speech that was sure to come about how he was wrong and Akihiko was right. He really didn't care how the guns worked or what the other called them. "I'll take care of myself then."

"You really shouldn't."

Kaito glared at the teen with all the determination he could. It must have affected him because Akihiko took a step back. "Try and stop me."

"It's your funeral, kid. I can't say I didn't try."

Kaito was left alone after that and he closed the door, retreating back into the solitude of the room. He laid down on the bed, thinking. He didn't know what to do anymore. He couldn't leave Hakuba, but he couldn't stay either. There was something inside of him that was craving the power that the others had too much to sit comfortably with him. He wouldn't give into that hunger- not if it was going to do to him what it was doing to the detective.

Kaito turned over on his side, watching the wall and wishing for some type of distraction. In the end, he ended up staring at the plain white paint job until he was hungry enough to get up and venture out into the dormitory where the others were scattered about.

Going down the flight of stairs, Kaito realized that, while they had the basics every kitchen needs in the lobby, they lacked any good food.

"Want to grab something?"

The guy's voice behind him made him jump. No one could sneak up on him. He was Kaitou Kid, after all. The blue-haired teen didn't seem to care about any of that though as he smiled at Kaito's sudden fright.

"Sure. Know any place good?"

"A few."

With his hands in his pocket, the boy walked off. Kaito followed, simply for something to do. He was hungry and he didn't feel like sitting in the room until nightfall, starving himself.

But then again, his stomach told him that, as hungry as he was, it was likely that he'd just be sick later with all the stress that was floundering around him at the moment.

"Know anyplace small? I don't really feel like being fat and slow tonight."

The blue-hair teen smiled, closing his eyes and opening them slowly with a nod.

Well, it didn't seem like he was going to get much more out of him. Out of all the new people he'd met recently, this one... this one was tricky. He didn't _feel_ like he was being tricked, but that was the problem. Everyone had something that they didn't want to talk about, that they were embarrassed about, that they liked or disliked. This kid wasn't hiding anything, he just wasn't going to bring anything up unless you brought it up first.

At least this time with him might give Kaito some more inside information on the other teen.

They had to walk for a while once they exited the dorm, coming to a large bridge with thick, metal connecting wires that reminded him of some of the bridges near Tokyo, though this one was shorter. Then they had to walk some more once they crossed and, while he wouldn't be complaining about it on any other occasion, one did have to consider that, while he got more exercise and could handle himself better than anyone he knew, he _had_ just had his hat handed to him by Hakuba last night and he was still sore.

Now if only he could figure out how the blue-haired teen was putting up with it so well.

As they got closer, Kaito started to recognize where they were going. In a few minutes, they were right in the plaza that he'd visited last night to return the necklace.

The blue-haired teen tipped his head to the side, to a building two doors left of the station. Above the building was a sign that looked like a big gold coin on a hanger. "Here."

Kaito let the other teen walk in first, calming down once he was inside. A part of him was expecting to find monsters lurking throughout the town, hiding anywhere just so that they could jump out at him when he let his guard down.

The cool air of the cafe and the calming scent of the coffee that lingered in the air was hard to distrust. Kaito walked with the teen to the counter, passing numerous people scattered about, a few he was sure were on dates here. The comfy looking sofa-like chairs and mocha colored floors and carpet, as well as the low hanging lights, set the atmosphere well enough.

"Medium Coffee." The teen handed over his money, smiling at the owner the way a frequent customer does. Kaito waited for him to step aside before ordering a cold coffee for himself and a sandwich.

They sat down away from everyone else, near the window, in two of the emerald chairs that were just as comfortable as they looked. Kaito had at his sandwich, trying to eat slowly so that he wouldn't add another reason for his stomach to rebel. That, and he wanted to have a conversation with this boy more than the others.

"So, we've been kind of... busy. What's your name? I never caught it."

The blue-haired teen smiled, resting his chin on the palm of his hand as he stirred his coffee with one of those little straws. "And just what's so important about a name?"

Kaito raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms in front of him. "So what? You want me to call you 'the kid with the attitude' all the time, or something?"

The blue-haired teen smiled, though it was closer to something demonic than it was mocking. "My name's Minato Arisato, if it's that important."

"Bad manners at worst," Kaito smirked back. "But again, you could have let me get creative naming you otherwise."

Minato's eyes grew softer around the edges. "You can't blame me for feeling guarded about the issue. You're pretty much a complete stranger to me, and your friend last night didn't leave the best impression."

"As if I could control anything that stupid detective does."

"Detective?" One of Minato's eyebrows went up slightly. "That's interesting. He's pretty young for something like that, isn't he?"

"And you're pretty young to be fighting dark monsters that come out at night to eat you, yet here we are."

Minato chuckled. "Yeah, I guess you're right about that one. Are you a detective too?"

"Ha. You couldn't pay me enough."

"You know, I'm not sure what makes someone able to wield their persona in battle the way we do but not everyone can do it, not even many. I think each one of us has a reason that we're chosen."

"So what? Hakuba was chosen so that he fall victim to it?"

The blue-haired teen's finger twitched when he let go of his cup. "I'm not saying that there aren't unforeseen circumstances that may come along afterwards, I'm just saying I think there's a reason why you came here. I know you were planning on leaving after tonight."

"And I'll be back. I can't leave Hakuba here- not like this."

"I know."

The other teen showed the subtle signs of glancing around, though Kaito didn't think he would have noticed if he weren't so good at looking for it. "What's the matter?"

"Nothing." Minato look a sip of his drink before putting it down. "It always feels as if there's someone watching me whenever I come here."

Kaito did his own surveillance after that but came up with nothing. "Maybe its just paranoia. I mean, look at what you do every night."

"Not every night," the teen corrected. "We'd get exhausted if we did that. We do all have school as well."

Kaito thought on how hard it would be to do Kid's job every night and nodded. That wouldn't be fun at all. Running for your life was hard enough without adding to the danger by taking it on more than you needed to.

"There's finals, too" Minato seem to add as an afterthought. "As long as I don't sleep through class every day, those are pretty easy. Sometimes you just need to take some time off to yourself."

"When people are in danger?" Kaito didn't mean to add an edge to his voice, but there were a lot of walls falling around this boy.

"We can't go individually or we'd get picked off, and going injured or tired is asking for us to die along with those we rescue." Minato's eyes were as sharp as the sword Kaito had seen him wielding last night. "We are not abandoning them, we are just doing what we can."

Kaito wanted to argue that more could be done. Anything! But while Minato's body language had him focusing solely on the other boy's eyes, he noticed the weariness there.

"Tell me something." Kaito folded his hands in front of him, riding on a hunch. "You've gone out there by yourself before, haven't you? Or at least, more than they have."

"And what does that matter? This isn't a contest of who's fought the most Shadows or anything silly like that." Minato let his eyes close and folded his hands in front of him, resting his head on the table in a position of vulnerability that Kaito didn't think the other boy would have ever allowed.

"Don't tell me you're going to sleep?" He asked on impulse.

"You plan on going out again tonight, right? I'm still tired from yesterday and you need someone to go with you. If I sleep here, they won't have a reason to keep me at the dorm after school." Minato sighed "And maybe this way we both won't die."

"...Thank you." Kaito didn't really know what else to say. He wasn't planning on asking for their help, but going it alone would be stupid.

The other teen gave him no replying answering, instead letting sleep take him over so that Kaito was alone with what was left of his food and drink.

It had only been hours since he'd last seen the detective and already he was feeling the repercussions that would come with his own powerlessness. Kaito was not one who was supposed to be weak, he wasn't someone _allowed_ to be weak. When he was... things like this happened.

The sun was growing brighter in the sky than it had been when they'd arrived. He hadn't had problems staying up all night before. Now all he wanted to do was go to sleep with the other boy. It was very tempting. He could read the others far better than he could Minato, but the blue-haired boy gave off some natural aura of protection. He couldn't read the other's thoughts, but if it came down to the wire, he knew where this boy would be standing. The others... he didn't trust. Not like this teen. And, worst of all, he couldn't explain why or where the feeling had come from. He felt safer sleeping in the coffee shop than he did back at the dorms.

With food in him the battle to stay awake became even harder. Minato didn't so much as stir across from him, so maybe the other boy felt the same thing too. Kaito knew he wasn't the most 'normal' person out there, so maybe they had the same reaction to one another. That, or maybe he was just _way_ over tired and needed some sleep to stop projecting himself onto other people.

He may have dozed off because when he looked around again there were less people in the shop than there were the last time he did his surveillance. Glancing at his watch, he looked down at the other teen and debated something. Minato was still sound asleep and looked like he'd stay that way if Kaito left him alone. He sighed.

"Hey." Kaito reached his hand across the table and shook the other teen's shoulder. "Wake up. You need to go to school, right? Everyone's leaving."

The teen grunted in his sleep and tried to move into a position where Kaito couldn't reach him.

He thought again about just letting him sleep. After all, _he_ was skipping school today; why not let the other boy as well? But that wouldn't help his cause in the long run. The other people from the dorm would notice if the other kid wasn't there and it might make them suspicious of what they were up to.

"Come on, you have to wake up." Kaito shook him again, this time more forcefully. Minato blinked at him a few times before resting his head back where it was and trying to fall back to sleep.

"You have got to be kidding me..." He watched the other boy with surprise. After all that had just happened he knew that he would have woken up in a heartbeat. This kid seemed like he either didn't care or had such low self-preservation that it didn't matter. He sighed and got up, taking both the other teen's shoulders and shaking him until he was good and awake.

"You know," Minato rubbed the sleep out of one of his eyes. "There are nicer ways to get someone up."

"And if I had, you wouldn't have woken for the next century."

The teen shrugged his shoulders indifferently and got up, yawning. Minato looked at him for a second before shoving his hands in his pockets, as if waiting for an answer for something.

"What?"

"Can you get back to the dorms?"

Kaito looked around and raised an eyebrow. "Sure, I'm not an idiot."

The other teen nodded and left. The chime above the door went off and, for a moment, Kaito felt a strange unease come over him. He ignored it, along with the unspoken order to go back to the dorm. Sure he could get back there, but the other teen hadn't told him to, just asked if he knew the way.

Walking outside, Kaito lounged on one of the benches around the fountain, liking the feel of the cooler temperature that surrounded the water. He rested there, letting his head fall on his arm where he hung it over the back of the bench. Even here he felt uneasy. There were too many things that he didn't understand, so it shouldn't have surprised him that he couldn't get his mind off of all the worry and paranoia around him.

Then there was someone decked out in royal blue sitting next to him.

Kaito jumped, looking frantically around to find that other person. They had just been next to him- and he hadn't even heard them coming.

Now they seemed to have disappeared into thin air.

Man, was he turning into a basket case. Now he was seeing people that weren't there. Kaito sighed, leaning back again but unable to shake the adrenaline running through his veins. He didn't like this place. There was something deep down in him that told him he wasn't supposed to be here. Maybe it wasn't just fear that had touched him the first night he'd been here, maybe it was something deeper. And yet he had ignored it and come back anyway.

Kaito put a hand to his head. What an idiot. If he'd only returned the stupid thing to the inspector to begin with, maybe none of this would have happened.

He didn't seem to be the only one skipping out on school today. Some girl adorned in an old English style dress, complete with bonnet and braids down her hair, walked past him.

And here Kaito didn't think this place would get any weirder.

"I'm going to go crazy here." His hand slid to cover his eyes. "I'm the one who's supposed be to creating the chaos, not falling into it. No wonder I didn't stand out here as Kid."

"You think you're going crazy now, try going to school."

Kaito couldn't' help jumping this time, enough so that he was off the bench and had spun around to the person who had been in his ear.

The other teen laughed, balancing precariously on the edge of the fountain. "I couldn't help it, man. I mean, you were talking to yourself and all." Junpei shrugged. "You gave me the opportunity, I took it."

"Shut up," Kaito snarled back at him. "Shouldn't you be in school?"

"I'm getting there." Junpei stretched. "Usually the prez gets me but she and Yuka-tan went out this morning or something. I haven't heard from them since. It's not my fault that I slept in."

Kaito's heart was finally starting to calm down. He was feeling sympathy for all the people he made victim to the same type of entertainment. Maybe when he got back he'd be a little nicer... or at least more considerate. How many of them, after all, had been through what he had? He had every right to be jumpy.

"_Of course it's your fault_," Kaito muttered under his breath. Louder, he said, "Get your lazy butt to class then instead of sitting around here, bothering me."

"Oh, because you talking to yourself was _sssooo_ important, right? Tsh. I was leaving anyway." Before Junpei could jump off the ledge, Kaito couldn't stop his actions. The teen _had_ just thrown the ball in his court and he wanted some payback.

Even being around the bench and a good few feet away from his earlier fright, Kaito was fast. He made it to the other end of the bench and around it before Junpei could hop off, pushing the other boy into the fountain.

The teen fell backwards comically, flailing his arms about as if to push gravity the other way. Of course it failed and he splashed into the pool, throwing a bit of water onto his attacker, though Kaito didn't worry about that too much. He was too busy grinning.

"Why you-!" Junpei sputtered, leaning on his arm to get most of the way out of the fountain. "I'll get you for that!"

Retribution goes both ways though and Kaito couldn't move back from his front row seat in time to avoid a large amount of displaced water that the other teen flung at him.

Shirt half soaked, along with his pants, Kaito continued grinning and ran off. Junpei, mad as a bull, stomped out of the water in some attempt to get him as wet as he'd gotten the other.

Kaito laughed as he ran circles around the fountain, Junpei much easier to outrun than the police.

Either from the night of being treated like rag dolls or the fact that running in circles actually does make you tired since you need to put more force into turning when running at higher speeds, both of them eventually gave up. Junpei put his hands one his knees and panted, still dripping wet.

"Man your fast."

Kaito took a seat on the outer ledge was had gotten wet in their fight. He didn't really care for the wet butt but he need to rest, panting as well as he looked up at the other teen. "So – are you."

Junpei straightened and patted his chest. "'Course I am. I gotta be with Yuka-tan after me half the time, sometimes for things I didn't- even do."

Kaito couldn't help the smile. That sounded like him and Aoko. "I know the feeling."

Junpei was grinning as he rang out some of his shirt, the grin gone as fast it was put up. "Man I'm soaking wet! I can't go to school like this."

Kaito smiled. "Go in and see how long it takes them to kick you out. Best way to get out of class that I can think of."

"Great." The dark teen closed his eyes and rested a hand on his hip. "Guess I gotta go back and dry off my clothes. The prez won't let me hear the end of this. Just so you know I'm blaming all of this on you."

"Me?" Kaito said skeptically. "You're the one who snuck up behind me. Besides, if I hadn't pushed you in, what with the way you mess everything up, you probably would have fallen in all by yourself."

"Hey!" The words that met Kaito were a lot harsher than he expected and he had to pause as his senses told him he was in danger. The dark look in Junpei eyes was enough reason to solidify that fear. "Take that back!"

Kaito held his ground but he didn't risk speaking, feeling his hands grab loosely at his side where he had everything he'd brought with him when he and Hakuba came back here. He was angry now because, as much as he didn't want to put the blame on anyone, Junpei was the reason Hakuba had freaked out so bad. "Why, because I'm right?"

Before Kaito could move the other teen jumped him, pinning one of his arms at his side and brandishing a fist in his face. Kaito would only blame his lack of speed on his injuries and the fact that he thought he was facing down a friend, not an enemy.

"I said take it back! I'm not a screw up!"

Really bad anger issues. But Kaito was angry too. If he lashed out as well this would be nothing short of a fight.

Kaito was fine with that.

The magician still had free use of his other arm and he took it, locking it in front of Junpei's fist so he couldn't get in a good hit, forcing the teen's face close to his own while he used his body moment and a good foot on the ground to turn them over so Kaito wasn't the one on the bottom.

Kaito still wasn't a fighter so he just stayed there, pinning the other teen. Besides when Junpei noticed he couldn't actually hit him and started pulling his hair, Kaito didn't get hurt.

"Why are you acting like such a kid?" Kaito glared at him, though considering his face was on the side neither could see the other's expression. "I'm not trying to fight you so why are you trying to pick one?"

"You started it!" But Junpei relented enough that Kaito felt comfortable letting him go. He got to his feet and mock dusted himself off, lowering his hand to the other teen. "I didn't mean to hurt your feelings or anything but grow up."

The other teen swatted his hand away. "You grow up." Junpei got up himself and didn't look Kaito in the eye. "You're the one that egged me on when I told you to shut up."

"I don't like being told to 'shut up'." Wasn't much of a comeback and Kaito did feel that some of the responsibility was his, but the teen didn't have to fly off the handle like that. "Why are you attacking everyone? You did it last night to. What's the matter with you?"

Junpei was quite and the silence was long enough that Kaito was able to let some of his anger and tension fall away. That was one fight he would have lost. "So no more poking at you about things like you falling in the water. Sorry."

"I guess I'm sorry too." Junpei turned away and shrugged. "I gotta get to school."

Kaito didn't follow him as the other teen walked off. If he thought that anyone was a ticking bomb waiting to go off, it was this guy. Even stingy Akihiko was better than having to deal with someone who you couldn't tell would throw a punch at you if you looked at him the wrong way.

He now had nothing to do now once more.

Sighing, Kaito walked off with his own hands in his pocket. Maybe going back to the dorm wouldn't have been such a bad idea after all.


End file.
